'^^p/Cttu^j:' ' /P^^t^^T^^i^^t^-^^ DuMAiN : " Once more I'll read the ode that I have writ" Love's Larouk's Lost Act IV Scene 3 Copyright, 1901 By THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY COLLEGE LIBRARY fK LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. /^ ^ Preface. / "^ O ( The Early Editions. The earliest edition of Love's La- hour's Lost appeared in 1598, with the following title- page : — " A Pleasant conceited Comedie called Loues La- bors lost. As it was presented before her Highness this last Christmas. Newly corrected and augmented hy W. Shakespere. Imprinted at London by W, IV. for Cuthhert Biirby." (Reproduced in photo-lithography by W. Griggs with forewords by Dr. Fumivall, Shakespeare-Quarto Facsimiles, No. 5.) The Folio Edition of 1623 — probably reprinted from the Quarto — gives on the whole a somewhat better text of the play, though in two or three instances the earlier Quarto is helpful in restoring correct readings ; both editions are marked by carelessness ; some of the errors are of singu- lar interest as throwing light on Shakespeare's workman- ship. The title-page of the Quarto indicates that the play as published in 1598 represents a revised version of an earlier production. \^arious attempts have been made to separate the earlier and later portions ; the text of the Quarto and Folio gives us a valuable clue ; Act IV. iii. 299-304, and Act V. ii. 827-832 are obviously parts of the first sketch of the play printed by mistake ; had the proofs of Quarto i been carefully read these lines would most certainly have been deleted ; the former passage represents the rough draft of the great speech in which they occur ; the latter gave place to Rosaline's speech '" Oft have I heard of you, my Lord Biron " (V. ii. 844-857). Probably a great part of the last Act has been re-written, especially the close of the play from the entrance of Mercade. Mr. Preface LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Spedding as far back as 1839 pointed out that the ine- quaUty in the length of the Acts gives us ^ hint where to look for the principal additions and alterations ; in Act I. Biron's remonstrance, and in Act IV. nearly the whole of the close and a few lines at the opening of the Act, may probably be classed with the passages already noted as be- longing to Shakespeare's maturer work. Date of Composition. All the recognized tests place Love's Labour 's Lost among the earliest of Shakespeare's regular plays : it may certainly be regarded as among the first of his comedies. External evidence bearing on the date is somewhat scanty ; in addition to a mention of the play in PaUadis Tamia in 1598, we have some lines by Robert Tofte in a poem entitled Alba; or, the Month's Mind of a Melancholy Lover, published the same year, wherein our play is referred to in words suggesting that it was not then a recent production : — " Love's Labour Lost I o)ice did see." Similarly in a letter by Sir Walter Cope to Lord Cranborne (1604) similar mention is made of this as " an old play " : — " Burbage is come and says there is no new play that the queen hath not seen, but they have revised an old one, called Love's Labour Lost, which for wit and mirth, he says, will please her exceedingly."* All this, however, adds little to the information given on the title-page of the first Quarto. Dr. Grossart, in his edition of Robert Southwell, con- tends that certain lines, written about 1594, apply to the eyes of Christ the idea contained in Biron's speech in the fifth Act :— " O sacred eyes ! the springs of living light, The earthly heavens where angels joy to dwell. . . ." There is a valuable piece of confirmatory evidence for * Tofte and others call the play Love's Labour Lost; it is doubt- ful whether the correct title is Love's Labours Lost, or Love's Labour's Lost; the apostrophe is found in the headline of Quarto i. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Preface the early date of this play and its companion play "Love's Labour Won'' (whatever this may have been) in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act L Sc. i. 29-33. " To be in love, what scorn is bought with groans . . . If happy won, perhaps a hapless gain, If lost why then a grievous labour's icon." General Characteristics. The metrical tests place Loi'c's Labour's Lost first of the plays of the first (or rhyming) period; its lyrical character is perhaps its most noteworthy feature : it contains in its present state twice as many rhymed lines as blank verse, and there can be little doubt that in its original form the proportion was even greater. In addition to three Sonnets and a Song* there is doggerel in abundance, as well as alternate rhymes and six-line stanzas ; but throughout the play the thought, quite as much as the metrical form, reminds us that Shake- speare has not yet divorced his poetical from his dramatic genius. " The opening speech of the king on the immor- tality of fame — on the triumph of fame over death — and the nobler parts of Biron," Mr. Pater justly observes, *' have something of the monumental style of Shake- speare's Sonnets, and are not without their conceits of thought and expression.'' Among other marks of its early date are the following : — Its symmetrical arrangement of the characters ; its in- troduction of the standing characters of the older plays (" the pedant, the braggart, the hedge-priest, the fool and the boy"); its quibbling, repartee, and word-play; its sketchy characterisation (Biron and Rosaline are rough drafts of Benedick and Beatrice ; Armado and Jaquenetta anticipate Touchstone and Audrey) ; the obvious influence of the Courtly dramas of John Lily. Finally, no other play gives us such glimpses into Shakespeare's youth ; none has such delightful reminiscences of his child-life at * Jaggard put two of the Sonnets and the Song into The Pas- sionate Pilgrim, 1599; the Song was also printed with Shake- speare's name attached 'in England's Helicon, 1600. Preface LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Stratford : in more senses than one Love's Labour 's Lost is " a portrait taken of him in his boyhood ! " The Plot. Love's Labour 's Lost has the sHghtest of all Shakespeare's plots ; it may be described as a drama of dialogue and satire ; intrigue plays practically no part in it. It would seem, indeed, that Shakespeare's first comedy owed its main interest to topical allusions, no doubt readily understood by his audience. This topical character of the play explains its popularity in Elizabethan days, and its neglect in modern times. Air. S. Lee ( Gentleman's Maga- zine, 1880) has called attention to its quasi-historical frame-work, and its many references to contemporary events and personages: — (i) The leading element of the play refers to English volunteers, who, under Essex, had just joined Henry of Navarre in France. Note the name of the hero of the play; his associates are named after Navarre's generals ; of these Biron was the best known and the most popular in England, and Shakespeare seems to have given us a life-like portraiture (in later years Chapman made him the hero of two of his plays) ; (2) the meeting of the King of Navarre and the Princess of France suggests the meeting of the King and, Catherine de Medici in 1586 to settle disputes between Navarre and the reigning king, her son, " decrepit in mind and body " ; (3) the references to Russian diplomacy ; (4) the question of academies ;'^ (5) ''the ludicrous side of contemporary country life, with its inefficient constable, its pompous schoolmaster, and its ignorant curate " ; (6) contemporary affectations of speech and dress. It is customary to class all the extravagances of speech characteristic of the Elizabethan age as Euphuism ; Shake- speare, however, carefully differentiates the pedantry of the New Learning, as exemplified by Holofernes ; the fan- tastic extravagance of the Newer Learning, as exemplified by Armado ; and the refined charm, the fascination, as well as the dangers, of the poetic diction of the age, as * From this point of view and in other respects the play should be compared with its Victorian counterpart, Tennyson's Princess. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Preface exemplified by Biron, — Shakespeare's own mouthpiece when he forswears his " Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, Figures pedantical." Shakespeare may well be identified with his favourite char- acter, and Biron's plea may well be taken as the poet's own : — "Yet have I a trick Of the old rage; — bear with me, I am sick; I '11 leave it by degrees." It is noteworthy that even " the fanatical phantasm " Armado was drawn from the life ; he was a well-known character of the time, and Thomas Churchyard commem- orated his death in a poem entitled " The Phantasticall Monarchoes Epitaph." Certain critics have discovered in Holofernes a carica- ture of Florio, but there is no reason for supposing that Shakespeare wished to hold up to ridicule a distinguished scholar, to whose work he was indebted. The name Holo- fernes was possibly derived from Rabelais ; Tubal Holo- phernes taught Gargantua his A B C : in his general char- acteristics he resembles Rombus, the schoolmaster, in Sidney's The Lady of the May. The close of the play suggests that Shakespeare had been reading Chaucer's Parlement of Foiiles. Perhaps even the song at the end may justly remind one of the fact that in Chaucer's poem also the birds sing their song as they disperse, though Shakespeare's song, as far as its form is concerned, is a mediaeval " debate." '' The debate and strife between summer and winter " was imprinted by Laurence Andrews. '' The pageant of the Nine Wor- thies " was a frequent subject of exhibition by the " base mechanicals " of country towns. " Divers play Alexan- der in the villages," observes Williams in his Discourse of Warre, 1590, " but few or none in the field." Duration of Action. The action of the play lasts prob- ably two days. Acts I. and IL cover the first day. Acts III. and IV. the second. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Critical Comments. L Argument. L Ferdinand, King of Navarre, and three of his lords, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain, forswear the so- ciety of women, and agree to lead austere Hves, devoted to study, for three years. The court is barred against women by proclamation; and so stringent is the edict that Costard, a clown, who has been seen in company with Jaquenetta, a country wench, is ordered imprisoned for a week. n. The Princess of France, with her ladies, Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine, and other attendants approach the court of Navarre on an affair of state. Their con- templated visit had been discussed by the four gentlemen when the latter made their oath of retirement, and it had been agreed that the ladies must be received as befitted their station. The gentlemen, therefore, meet them courteously outside the gates, where the King causes pavilions to be erected for his royal guests, at the same time apologizing that an oath prevents their mainte- nance in Navarre. in, Biron, who was the last to sign the oath, is the first to weaken. He falls in love w4th Rosaline, w^hom he had met before. He writes her a note and entrusts it for delivery to Costard, now at liberty. The clown has been freed by Armado, a Spaniard, in order that he may act as messenger for him to Jaquenetta. IV. Costard gets the notes of the Spaniard and the nobleman confused, delivering Armado's missive to 6 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Comments Rosaline and Biron's to Jaquenetta. The Princess and her attendants derive much amusement from the Span- iard's fantastical message; while Jaquenetta, unable to decipher her letter, takes it to a schoolmaster, who, recognizing- Biron's name, and being aware of the edict, sends her with it to the King. Afterwards the King and his two other gentlemen re- spectively fall in love with the Princess and the two other ladies. Each lover being discovered by one or others of his friends in the act of writing love-verses, is obliged to make confession of his passion — to the great scorn of Biron. But his triumph is short-lived, for Jaquenetta arrives with his missent letter, and Biron is forced to admit his own shortcomings. Since all are forsworn, they plan to make war upon the hearts of their feminine visitors. V. The ladies content themselves with the proffered hospitality outside the court. They pass their time in hunting and kindred outdoor pleasures. Presently all begin to receive letters and love-tokens from their sev- eral admirers, who visit them on one occasion in dis- guise. But the ladies, having got wind of their coming, also disguise themselves, and thus confuse the court- iers, so that each woos the wrong one and becomes the sport of her wit. The gentlemen retire and return in their proper habits, to find that the ladies have changed their favours, and to become dismayed at the blunders they commit. A masque is presented, and in the midst of it the Princess receives word of her father's death. She prepares for speedy departure. The King sues openly for her hand, and also seeks the hands of her three ladies on behalf of his friends. The Princess is not yet ready to yield, but bids them wait a twelvemonth and a day, and promises to give favourable answer at the expiration of that time, which is to be spent by the King in a hermitage, while she mourns her father. Her three ladies likewise impose a similar penance upon their lovers, Comments LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST who see, for the moment at least, that their love's labour 's lost. McSpaddex: Shakespearian Synopses. n. Two Sets of Characters. We have already remarked upon the higher characters of this play as appearing to have been drawn rather from books than from life. They have little of the close compacting of living power, which so marks the Poet's delineations generally, and which naturally results in dis- tinctive features and characteristic traits. \\q can scarce distinguish and remember them as individuals: they run together, as it were, in our thoughts, as being rather personified whimsicalities and affectations than affected and whimsical persons; are not fully cut out and rounded into severalty; but appear somehow too much like the same thing under several variations: in short, they affect us more as ingeniously-wrought figures and images of men and women, than as real men and women themselves; though we must confess that something of a determinate and specific individuality is given to Biron and RosaHne, so that we take up a more distinct im- pression and carry away a much clearer remembrance of them. Thus they differ from Shakespeare's other representations very much as a portrait taken from the life differs from a mere copy; which a practised eye will readily distinguish, without being told the facts. So that the play thus far almost reverses the Poet's general rule; the characters existing rather for the sake of the plot, than the plot for the sake of the characters; these being indeed mainly used as a sort of ground for the projecting and carrying on of a dramatic device. Thus the thing, at least in this part, is not so much a play as a show. Hence, perhaps, the comparatively little inter- 8 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Comments est that readers generally take in it: for a mere story or show is interesting only while it is new; whereas a work of art, a real expression of character and life, grows in interest as we grow more acquainted with it. The other set of characters, however, especially Cos- tard, Armado, and Moth, are of a very different stamp. Here the Poet was evidently feeding of the fruit that grows from observation, not " of the dainties that are bred in a book " : here he is plainly at work in a vein where his eye and hand are at home; moulding his forms out of the materials amidst which his life has been passed and his thinking shaped. For whatsoever proto- types of Armado may be found in Italian comedies, there is no denying that Shakespeare constructed that " mighty potentate of nonsense " in the strength of a knowledge far more living and operative than could have been gained by mere reading. In this case only a Spanish name was given to an old EngHsh substance: Coleridge informs us that even in his time the character was not extinct in the cheaper inns of North Wales. As for Holofernes the schoolmaster, and Sir Nathaniel the curate, those prodigious epicures of learned vocables, who " have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps," Shakespeare's age was just the time for such characters to be generated, and trained on into ludicrous perfection. The traits uppermost in them were but the natural working down of what was then a leading aim with the highest and wittiest in society — a continual effort to appear clever and spir- ited, to shine and entertain by talking out of the common way; so that "the courtiers, and men of rank and fashion, affected a display of wit, point, and sententious observation, that would be deemed intoler- able at present." This straining after mental ornament, which so filled the palace and the cottage with every variety of small wit, was indeed a disease, and perhaps this play yields proof enough that Shakespeare viewed it as such: yet there is no telling how much it may have 9 Comments LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST had to do with the discipline, which taught Hooker to write the richest, noblest, most varied and musical prose style that has yet been written in the English tongue. Nor in our time, as perhaps in all times when learning is duly prized, is there wanting a class of men whose or- dinary talk shows them to " have lived long on the alms- basket of words " ; thus reversing the fine old maxim of Roger Ascham, " to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do." Hudson : The Works of Shakespeare. in. Thwarted by the Ladies. The young King of Navarre with three of his knightly companions form the strange resolution of devoting three years to study and philosophy in strict seclusion from the world and especially from all female society. They have bound themselves by an oath to keep this engagement. Their resolution, however, is soon thwarted by the arrival of the beautiful Princess of France, accompanied by her ladies, who seeks an in- terview on urgent affairs of state, and therefore cannot be refused. All the champions of philosophy and se- clusion fall in love with these ladies, who are as lovable as they are mischievous. Hereupon ensues a lively com- bat of w4t and caprice, in which the knights either taunt and ridicule one another on account of their broken vow — trying at the same time to justify themselves, or seek to win their ladies' hearts; the latter, however, cleverly manage to defend themselves, outdo wit by wit, and satisfactorily punish the gentlemen for breaking a vow, as quickly renounced as it was foolishly made, and for their affectation of superior wisdom. . . . The fine and ever correct judgement of noble women, is here as triumphant as their great talent for social wit and 10 LOVrS LABOUR 'S LOST Comments refined intrigue. The moral of the piece may be said to be contained in the speech of the Princess where she condemns the King to a twelvemonth's fast and strict seclusion, in the sense intimated above, and again in the words of Rosaline, in which she makes it a condition to the vain Biron — a man who boasts of the power of his mind and wit in social intercourse — that, to win her love he shall for a twelvemonth from day to day visit " the speechless sick " and " converse with groaning wretches," and, in order to exercise all the powers of his wit, demands of him '' to force the pained impotent to smile." The end of the comedy thus, to a certain extent, returns to where it began. Ulrici: Shakspeare's Dramatic Art. IV. The Humorous and the Artificial in Conflict. There was a double unnaturalness in the scheme of the celibates, and the comic nemesis upon it is double. In the first place, it was an unnatural state of things as regarded their relations to one another, and they needed a mutual oath to support their resolution; accordingly, they at- tempt to conceal their lapses from one another, but are betrayed. In a superbly comic scene the four come one after another to a sequestered spot in the park, seeking a secret place where they may indulge in a recitation of the love-sonnet which each has composed to his mistress, beheving himself to be the only offender; and each in turn hides as he sees his comrade coming on the same errand, hoping to surprise his fellow in an act of perjury, while he conceals his own. The last to arrive is so sur- prised by the third, when suddenly the second leaps out of ambush to confront the third, and then the first in his turn comes down upon the second. Nor has he en- joyed his triumph over the three long, when the arrival II Comments LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST of an intercepted letter reduces him to the level of his companions. Again, the celibate scheme of life was a violation of nature in reference to the ladies; and con- sequently there is a further nemesis of ridicule when the men break through their vow, after having urged it to their visitors by such overt means as keeping them out- side the palace. Princess. None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd, As wit turn'd fool . . . Rosaline. The blood of you-th burns not with such excess As gravity's revolt to wantonness. The celibates can recover their position only by enter- ing into the humour of the circumstances which have turned against them. In the scene of their betrayal to one another, after a spirited attempt to brazen it out, they yield to the force of the situation, calling on Biron to give them reasons for the course they have resolved on, to cheat the devil after the sin has been committed; this he does in a mock pompous oration, after which they lay these glozings by, and set about wooing these girls of France. But they are not yet completely purged of their sin against humour, and resolve to cover their approach with an elaborate masque — another of the conventionali- ties of the age to be pilloried. This purpose unfortu- nately is overheard, and communicated to the ladies, who determine to disconcert it, solemnly turning their backs at the supreme moment of the compHment, and after- wards, in the more miscellaneous conversation, arran- ging to exchange masks, so that each courtier pours his adoration into the ear of the wrong mistress. The celi- bates fully recover their equahty with their visitors only when they enter into the humour of their persecutors, and — hardest test of all — join in abuse of their spoiled pageants. Then the action reaches its cHmax in a pro- longed cascade of humorous fireworks. MouLTON : Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. 12 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Comments Armado as a Caricature. Armado's bombast may probably be accepted as a not too extravagant caricature of the bombast of the period. Certain it is that the schoolmaster Rombus, in Sir PhiHp Sidney's Lady of the May, addresses the Queen in a strain no whit less ridiculous than that of Holofernes. But what avails the justice of a parody if, in spite of the art and care lavished upon it, it remains as tedious as the mannerism it ridicules! And this is unfortunately the case in the present instance. Shakespeare had not yet attained the maturity and detachment of mind which could enable him to rise high above the follies he attacks, and to sweep them aside with full authority. He buries him- self in them, circumstantially demonstrates their ab- surdities, and is still too inexperienced to realise how he thereby inflicts upon the spectator and the reader the full burden of their tediousness. It is very characteristic of Elizabeth's taste that, even in 1598, she could still take pleasure in the play. All this fencing with words ap- pealed to her quick intelligence; while, with the un- abashed sensuousness characteristic of the daughter of Henry VHI. and x\nne Boleyn, she found entertainment in the playwright's freedom of speech, even, no doubt, in the equivocal badinage between Boyet and Maria (IV. I.). As was to be expected, Shakespeare is here more de- pendent on models than in his later works. From Lyly, the most popular comedy-writer of the day, he probably borrowed the idea of his Armado, who answers pretty closely to Sir Tophas in Lyly's Endymion, copied, in his turn, from Pyrgopolinices, the boastful soldier of the oldj^atin comedy. It is to be noted, also, that the brag- gart and pedant, the two comic figures of this play, are 13 Comments LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST permanent types on the Italian stage, which in so many ways influenced the development of English comedy. Brandes: William Shakespeare, VL Holofernes and ShaKespeare's School=days. While the curate, Sir Nathaniel, is reading Biron's epistle, which " accidentally or by way of progression had miscarried," Holofernes, full of pedagogic self-im- portance, cannot resist airing at large his professional accomplishments. He accordingly breaks forth with a sounding line from the school author so dear to the pe- dantic mind: — " Faust e precor gclida quando pecus omnc sub umbra Ruminat — and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan ! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice : — * — Venegia, Venegia, Chi noil te vede ei non te pregia' Old Mantuan, old Mantuan ! who understandeth thee not, loves thee not." Both poet and critic were, however, as usual, com- paratively powerless against the pedants; or rather, perhaps, it would be more correct to say the vis inertioe of use and wont still kept the old Mantuan in his place as a favourite school author. ... It would seem, however, that Shakespeare must have had some experi- ence of the special exercises belonging' to the higher forms, amongst others those of making Latin, of writing Latin epistles, themes, and verses. At least he represents Holofernes as criticising Biron's love sonnet according to the estabHshed stages and elements of progress in this department of school work. Two of the more important of these stages were technically known as imitation and invention, the lower exercise, or imitation, being pre- paratory to the higher and more independent effort re- 14 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Comments quired for invention. Imitation consisted In taking a passage from some author read in the class, and, while retaining the substance, altering the form. . . . Keeping these different elements of the upper-school exercises in view, we can better understand the exact force and bearing of the criticism Holofernes volunteers on Biron's love verses. The pedant, it will be remem- bered, after airing his knowledge of the Eclogues, and giving forth the Italian proverb about Venice, had been impatiently humming to himself while the curate read the letter just delivered by Jaquenetta. At length, his patience being exhausted, he addresses himself directly to the reader : " Under pardon, sir, what are the con- tents? or, rather, as Horace says in his " Then, catching sight of the manuscript, he exclaims : — " — What, my soul, verses ? " Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned. " Hoi. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse, Lege, domine" The curate having read the verses, the pedagogic habit is so inveterate with Holofernes that he cannot help coming the schoolmaster over even his mild-mannered and deferential companion. He complains that he has missed the necessary elisions, and not given the proper accent. '' You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent : let me supervise the canzonet." Then ta- king the paper Into his hands he proceeds, with a frown of critical concentration and the outstretching of a di- dactic forefinger towards the offending document, to de- Uver his authoritative judgement: — " Here are only numbers ratified ; but, for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovidius Naso was the man : and why, indeed, Naso ; but for smelHng out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of invention! Imitari is nothing: so doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider." We can fancy Master Thomas Hunt In the ancient Stratford school-house reading amongst the exercises of 15 Comments LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST the higher forms one signed W. Shakespeare, but, un- less he were exceptionally mole-eyed, hardly with the same result. The numbers might not indeed be per- fectly ratified, as the boy's mastery over longs and shorts might be still defective. But the exercise, if marked by blemishes in the details of scholarship, could hardly be wholly wanting in facility, in flowers of fancy, and jerks of invention. However this may be, it seems clear from the extract that Shakespeare was familiar with the kind of exercise, as well as with the cut and dried scholastic principles according to which it was usually criticised. Baynes: Shakespeare Studies. VIL Biron. The leading and predominance of Biron In the first scene continues all through the more elevated portion of the play, and is the key to the structure of the har- mony. This character. In itself, is drawn with a vigour and spirit equal to anything we possess of Shakespeare's; his figure is fully relieved and attracts the eye and de- tains it, and gives centre and interest to the entire com- position. Lloyd : Critical Essays on the Plays of Shakespeare. Berowne [Biron], the exponent of Shakspere's own thought, who entered into the youthful. Idealistic project of his friends, with a satisfactory assurance that the time would come when the entire dream-structure would tumble ridiculously about the ears of them all — Berowne [Biron] is yet a larger nature than the Princess or Rosa- line. His good-sense is the good-sense of a thinker and of a man of action. When he is most flouted and be- mocked^ we yet acknowledge him victorious and the master; and Rosaline will confess the fact by-and-by. Dowden: Shc^spere. i6 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Comments Of the celibates Biron has most sense of humour, especially seen in his ready appreciation of the arch-per- secutor Boyet, and accordingly he always has the ad- vantage over his fellows: he alone objects to the scheme at the outset, he is the last to be exposed in the discov- ery scene, and the first to enter into the spirit of the finale. Moulton: Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. VIIL Characterizations. If we were to part with any of the author's comedies, it should be this. Yet we should be loth to part with Don Adriano de Armado, that mighty potentate of non- sense; or his page, that handful of wit; with Nathaniel the curate, or Holofernes the schoolmaster, and their dispute after dinner, on " the golden cadences of poesy " ; with Costard the clown, or Dull the constable. Biron is too accomplished a character to be lost to the world, and yet he could not appear without his fellow-courtiers and the king: and if we w^ere to leave out the ladies, the gentlemen would have no mistresses. So that we believe we must let the whole play stand as it is, and we shall hardly venture to " set a mark of reprobation on it." Still we have some objections to the style, which we think savours more of the pedantic spirit of Shake- spear's time than of his own genius; more of controver- sial divinity, and the logic of Peter Lombard, than of the inspiration of the Muse. It transports us quite as much to the manners of the court, and the quirks of courts of law, as to the scenes of nature, or the fairy-land of his own imagination. Hazlitt : Characters of Shakespears Plays. Both the characters and the dialogue are such as youthful talent might well invent, without much knowl- 17 Comments LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST edge of real life, and would indeed be likely to invent, be- fore the experience and observation of varied society. The comedy presents a picture, not of the true every- day life of the great or the beautiful, but exhibits groups of such brilliant personages as they might be supposed to appear in the artificial conversation, the elaborate and continual effort to surprise or dazzle by wit or elegance, which w^as the prevailing taste of the age, in its literature, its poetry, and even its pulpit; and in which the nobles and beauties of the day were accustomed to array them- selves for exhibition, as in their state attire, for occasions of display. All this, when the leading idea was once caught, was quite within the reach of the young poet to imitate or surpass, with Httle or no personal knowledge of aristocratic — or what would now be termed fashion- able — society. Verplanck: The Illustrated Shakespeare. Love's Labour 's Lost is one of the earliest of Shake- spere's dramas, and has many of the pecuHarities of his poems, which are also the work of his earlier life. The opening speech of the king on the immortality of fame — on the triumph of fame over death — and the nobler parts of Biron, display something of the monumental style of Shakespere's Sonnets, and are not without their con- ceits of thought and expression. This connexion of Love's Labour's Lost with Shakespere's poems is further enforced by the actual insertion in it of three sonnets and a faultless song; which, in accordance with his prac- tice in other plays, are inwoven into the argument of the piece and, like the golden ornaments of a fair woman, give it a peculiar air of distinction. There is merriment in it also, with choice illustrations of both wit and humour; a laughter, often exquisite, ringing, if faintly, yet as genuine laughter still, though sometimes sinking into mere burlesque, which has not lasted quite so well. And Shakespere brings a serious effect out of the trifling of his characters. A dainty love-making is interchanged i8 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Comments with the more cumbrous play: below the many artifices of Biron's amorous speeches we may trace sometimes the " unutterable longing " ; and the lines in which Katharine describes the blighting through love of her younger sister are one of the most touching things in older literature. Again, how many echoes seem awa- kened by those strange words, actually said in jest! — " The sweet war-man (Hector of Troy) is dead and rot- ten ; sweet chucks, beat not the bones of the buried : when he breathed, he was a man ! " — words which may remind us of Shakespere's own epitaph. In the last scene, an ingenious turn is given to the action, so that the piece does not conclude after the manner of other comedies : — " Our wooing doth not end like an old play; Jack hath not Jill : " and Shakespere strikes a passionate note across it at last, in the entrance of the messenger, who announces to the princess that the king her father is suddenly dead. Pater: Appreciations. The characters in this play are either impersonated out of Shakespeare's own multiformity by imaginative self- position, or out of such as a country town and school- boy's observation might supply — the curate, the school- master, the Armado (who even in my time was not ex- tinct in the cheaper inns of North Wales), and so on. The satire is chiefly on follies of words. Biron and Rosaline are evidently the pre-existent state of Benedict and Beatrice, and so, perhaps, is Boyet of Lafeu, and Costard of the Tapster in Measure for Measure; and the frequency of the rhymes, the sweetness as well as the smoothness of the metre, and the number of acute and fancifully illustrated aphorisms, are all as they ought to be in a poet's youth. True genius begins by generali- zing and condensing ; it ends in realizing and expanding. It first collects the seeds. 19 Comments LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Yet if this juvenile drama had been the only one ex- tant of our Shakespeare, and we possessed the tradition only of his riper works, or accounts of them in writers who had not even mentioned this play, how many of Shakespeare's characteristic features might we not still have discovered in Love's Labour 's Lost, though as in a portrait taken of him in his boyhood! I can never sufficiently admire the wonderful activity of thought throughout the whole of the first scene of the play, rendered natural, as it is, by the choice of the characters, and the whimsical determination on which the drama is founded. A whimsical determination cer- tainly; yet not altogether so very improbable to those who are conversant in the history of the Middle Ages, with their Courts of Love, and all that lighter drapery of chivalry, which engaged even mighty kings with a sort of serio-comic interest, and may well be supposed to have occupied more completely the smaller princes, at a time when the noble's or prince's court contained the only theatre of the domain or principality. This sort of story, too, was admirably suited to Shakespeare's times, when the English court was still the foster-mother of the state and the muses ; and when, in consequence, the courtiers, and men of rank and fashion, affected a display of wit, point, and sententious observation that would be deemed intolerable at present, but in which a hundred years of controversy, involving every great political, and every dear domestic, interest, had trained all but the lowest classes to participate. Coleridge: Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare. 20 Loves Labour's Lost, DRAMATIS PERSONAE. Ferdinand^ king of Navarre. BlRON^ 1 LoNGAViLLE, V lords attending on the King. DUMAIN, ) ' v lords attending on the Princess of France. Mercade, ) Don Adriano de Armado^ a fantastical Spaniard. Sir Nathaniel, a curate. Holofernes, a schoolmaster. Dull, a constable. Costard, a clown. Moth, page to Armada. » A Forester. The Princess of France. Rosaline, \ Maria, V- ladies attending on the Princess. Katharine, ) Jaquenetta, a country wench. Lords, Attendants, etc. Scene : Navarre. 22 Love's Labour 's Lost. ACT FIRST. Scene I. The King of Navarre's park. Enter Ferdinand, king of Navarre, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain. King. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, Live registered upon our bmzen tombs. t^ And then grace us in the rn^i^gif^ ^f ripath; When, spite of co^SrMf^evouring Time, The endeavour of this pres^nj breath may buy That honour which shall balenisscvthe's keen edge, And make us heirs of all eternity. Therefore, brave conquerors, — for so you are. That war against your own affections And the huge army of the world's desires, — lo Our late edict shall strongly stand in force : Navarre shall be the wonder of the world; Our court shall be a little Academe, g^py^a/rjjt^c Still and contemplative in Imffg^^nT**"^^ You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville, Have sworn for three years' term to live with me My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes That are recorded in this schedule here: Your oaths are pass'd; and now subscribe your names, That his own hand may strike his honour down 20 That violates the smallest branch herein: 23 Act I. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST If you are arm'd to do as sworn to do, Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it too. Long. I am resolved; 'tis but a three years' fast: The mind shall banquet, though the body pine: Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits. Dum. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified: The grosser manner of these world's delights He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves; 30 To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die; With all these living in philosophy. Biron. I can but say their protestation over; So much, dear liege, I have already sworn, That is, to live and study here three years. But there are other strict observances; As, not to see a woman in that term. Which I hope well is not enrolled there; And one day in a week to touch no food. And but one meal on every day beside, 40 The which I hope is not enrolled there ; n ^-777 And then, to sleep but three hours in the night, ^ "^ And not be seen tg^winfj^lflie day.- ^ When I was wont to think no harm all night, ^ And make a dark night too of half the day, — Which I hope well is not enrolled there : O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep, Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep! King. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these. Biron, Let me say no, my liege, an if you please : 50 I only swore to study with your grace. And stay here in your court for three years' space. Long. You swore to that, Biron, and to the rest, 24 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act L Sc. i. 60 Biron. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest. What is the end of study? let me know. King. Why, that to know, which else we should not know. Biron. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from cbmrnoi r sense? King. Ay, that is study's god-like recompence. Biron. Come on, then; I will swear to study so, To know the thing I am forbid to know: As thus, — to study where I well may dine, When I to feast expressly am forbid; Or study where to meet some mistress fine, When mistresses from common sense are hid; Or, having sworn too hard a keeping oath, Study to break it, and not break my troth. If study's game be thus, and this be so, Study knows that which yet it doth not know: Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say no. King. These be the stops that hinder study quite. And train our intellects to vain delight. Biron. Why, all delights are vain ; but that most vain. Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain: As, painfully to pore upon a book To seek the light of truth; while truth the while Doth falsely bhnd the eyesight of his look: Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile: So, ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes. Study me how to please the eye indeed, 80 By fixing i^ipon a iairer eye; .. (^ "(LJuMjUj^ Who d^55|- soJSi^eye shall be hig%ed, ^ £,at^ £U. And give him light that it was blinded by. -^^ /uajx^zS^ 70 Act I. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Study is like the heaven's glorious sun, That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks : Small have continual plodders ever won Save'oase autnority from other's books. These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights. That give a name to every fixed star, Have no more profit of their shining nights 90 Than those that walk and wot not what they are. Too much to know, is to know nought but fame; And every godfather can give a name. r)j^^^ Have chose as umpire of their mutiny :/7 ^ 170 2^<*- ^^ f^ This child of fancy, that Armado higni^^^^ x/Uxj(juay For interim to our studies, shall relate, iSc^CKhi'* In high-born words, the worth of many a knieht From tawny Spain, lost in the world's geoate . How you deHght, my lords, I know not, I; But, I protest, I love to hear him he, And I will use him for my mjnstrelsy. w. "•"^Z/^ LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act L Sc. i. Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight, A man of nr^f^ ^wmas. fashion's own knight. Long. Costard the swain and he shall be our sport; i8o And, so to study, three years is but short. Enter Dull zvith a letter, and Costard. Dull. Which is the Duke's own person? Biron. This, fellow: what wouldst? Didl. I myself repreli^nd his r)wn person, for I am his grace's f^rDon3u|^ : muTw^uTd see his own person in flesh and blood. Biron. This is he. Didl. Signior Arme — Arme — commends you. There's villany abroad: this letter will tell you more. ^ T ~^ ^9° Cost. Sir, the contempt s thereof are as touching me. King. A letter from the magnificent Armado. Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words. Long. A high hope for a low heaven: God grant us patience! Biron. To hear? or forbear laughing? Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or to forbear both. 200 Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness. Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaque- netta. -The matter of it is, I was taken, with ^ the r^^'fm ^^^'^^^-^CitxJPu^ iJaJl Wu. &ijLiu.j /^*^t^ Biron. In what manner? U^Ou -Suluc^ Cost. In manner and form following, sir; all those 29 Act I. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST three: I was seen with her ija tha,manor-house, sitting with her upon the lofia, and taken fol- lowing her into the park; which, put together, 210 is in manner and form following. Now, sir, for the manner, — it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman: for the form, — in some form. Biron. For the following, sir? Cost. As it shall follow in my correction: and God defend the right! King. Will you hear this letter with attention! Biron. As we would hear an oracle. Cost. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh. 220 King. [Rcads^ ' Great deputy, the welkin's vice- gerent, and sole dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's god, andbody's fostering patron.' — Cost. Not a word of Costard yet. King. [Reads] ' So it is,' — Cost. It may be so: but if he say it is so, he is, in telling true, but so. King. Peace ! Cost. Be. to me, and every man that dares not fight ! 230 King. No words! Cost. Of other men's secrets, I beseech you. King. [Reads] ' So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-oppress- ing humour to the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourish- 30 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act L Sc. i. ment which is called supper; so much for the 240 time when. Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon: it is ycleped thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most (Z^ <2-ie«Atiioi?cfi preposterous event, that draweth from my snow- •^i.£e. <2^ Arm. I will hereupon confess I am in love: and as it ^^^ /&c is base for a soldier to love, so am I in love with Cf- ^^uLtjSa. a base wrench. If drawing my sword against the "^^ humour of affection would deliver me from the reprobate thought of it, I would take Desire 60 prisoner, and ransom him to any French courtier for a new-devised couTOs| ^ I think scorn to sigh : methinks I should outswear Cupid. Com- fort me, boy: what great men have been in love? Moth. Hercules, master. Arm. Most sweet Hercules! More authority, dear boy, name more; and, sweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage. Moth. Samson, master: he was a man of good carriage, great carriage, for he carried the town- 70 gates on his back like a porter: and he w^as in love. Arm. O, well-knit Samson! strong-jointed Samson! I do excel thee in my rapier as much as thou didst me in carrying gates. I am in love too. Who was Samson's love, my dear Moth? Moth. A woman, master. 35 Act I. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Arm. Of what complexion? Moth. Of all the four, or the three, or the two, or one of the four. 7W^,c«..,*.«^' 8° Arm. Tell me precisely of what complexion . ^//^ /itt^u'wfc ilfo/Zi. Of the sea-water green, sir. Arm. Is that one of the four complexions? Moth. As I have read, sir; and the best of them too. Arm. Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers; but to have a love of that colour, methinks Samson had small reason for it. He surely affected her for her wit. Moth. It was so, sir; for she had a green wit. Arm. Aly love is most immaculate white and red. 90 Moth. Most maculate thoughts, master, are masked under such colours. Arm. Define, define, well-educated infant. Moth. My father's wit, and my mother's tongue, assist me! Arm. Swejej, invocation. of a pJiilc^ JS^^^ pretty and ath^gllfr""^ ^^'^2> f^ Moth. If she be made of white and red, Her faults will ne'er be known; For blushing cheeks by faults are bred, 100 And fears by pale white shown: jj ^Then if she fear, or be to blame, ^^^^c,^^ By this you shall not know; t^ /l^^a^f Yqx still her cheeks possess the same Which ^ative, she doth owe. A dangerous rhyme, master, against the reason of white and red. Arm. Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar? LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act L Sc. ii. Moth. The world was very guilty of such a ballad no some three ages since: but, I think, now 'tis not to bQ found; or, if it were, it would neither ^ serve for the writing nor the tune. Ann. I will have that subject newly writ o'er, that i may example my n i gress lo lPrnv some mighty precedent. Boy, I do love that coj^itiT ZW^ that I took in the park with the ratlonai h m Costard: she deserves well. Moth. YAside'X To be whipped; and yet a better love than my master. 120 Arm. Sing, boy; my spirit grows heavy in love. Moth. And that 's great marvel, loving a Hght wench. Arm. I say, sing. Moth. Forbear. till this company be past. Enter Dull, Costard, and Jaquenetta. Dull. Sir, the Duke's pleasure is, that you keep ^ P^jutf Costard safe: and you must suffer him to take {/ no delight nor no 'ijenanc. e ; but a' must fast three days a week. For this damsel, I must \ keap her at the park: she is allowed for the 130 aay -vv6man. Fare you well. Arm. I do betray myself with blushing. Maid. ]aq. Man. ^™. I will vishtbee^atd.ejpdge^^_ Co.^(L. «f^/ laq. That s h^y. ."^^-^^^^ tu^^.^' eOs^L.' Arm. i know where it is situate. * laq. Lord, how wise you are! Arm. I will tell thee wonders. laq. With that face? Z7 Act I. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Arm. I love thee. 140 Jaq. So I heard you say. Arm. And so, farewell. Jaq. Fair weather after you! Dull. Come, Jaquenetta, away! [Exeunt Dull and Jaquenetta, Arm. Villain, thou shalt fast for thy offences ere thou be pardoned. Cost. Well, sir, I hope, when I do it, I shall do it on a full stomach. Arm. Thou shalt be heavily punished. Cost. I am more bound to you than your fellows, 150 for they are but lightly rewarded. Arm. Take away this villain; shut him up. Moth. Come, you transgressing slave; away! Cost. Let me not be pent up, sir: I will fast, being loose. Moth. No, sir; that were fast and loose: thou shalt to prison. Cost. Well, if ever I do see the merry days of desolation that I have seen, some shall see. Moth. What shall some see? 160 Cost. Nay, nothing, Master Moth, but what they look upon. It is not for prisoners to be too silent in their words; and therefore I will say nothing: I thank God I have as little patience as another man; and therefore I can be quiet. ts,^A3cJL [Exeunt Moth and Costard. Arm. I do affeci the very ground, which is base, where her shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, which is basest, doth tread. I shall be for- sworn, which is a great argument of falsehood, 38 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act H. Sc. i. if I love. And how can that be true love \vhich is falsely attempted? Love is a i^mfi^ .^^o\e' is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love. Yet was Samson so tempted, and he had an ex- cellent strength; yet was Solomon so s^duc( and he had a very good wit. Cupid's fiiT^^^nal is too hard for Hercules' club ; and therefore too oJ^S^^^^'a much odds for a Spaniard's rapier. The first r/ /^ ^nd second^ause, will not serve my turn; the ^ ^iVT/ - V^tfi€ o^0f^^f^&^fnot, the duello he regards not: his disgrace is to be called boy; but his i8o ^a^fccf" S^^^y is to subdue men. Adieu, valour! rust, ^ rapier! be still, drum! for your ^anager_ is in • Aa >r) ^^ig^^jy^love; yea, he loveth. Assist me some eSj^*"*^ fj^yu^ temporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet. Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio. [Exit. ACT SECOND. Scene L The same. Enter the Princess of France, Rosaline, Maria, Katha- rine, Boyet, Lords, and other Attendants. Boyet. Now, madam, summon up your ^i^ai^^ spirits: Consider who the king your father sends; To whom he sends; and what's his embassy: Yourself, held precious in the world's esteem. To parley with the sole inheritor Of all perfections that a man may owe, Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight 39 Act II. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Than Aquitaine, a dowry for a queen. Be now as prodigal of all dear grace, As Nature was in making graces dear, lo When she did starve the general world beside, And prodigally gave them all to you. Prin. Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise: Beauty is bought by judgement cA the eye, Not utter'd by base sale of £^pm|ns tongues: I am less proud to hear you tell my worth Than you much willing to be counted wise In spending your wit in the praise of mine. But now to task the tasker; good Boyet, 20 You are not ignorant, all-telling fame Doth noise abroad, Navarre hath made a vow, Till painful study shall outwear three years, No woman may approach his silent court: Therefore to 's seemeth it a needful course. Before we enter his forbidden gates, io\'^iis pleasure; and in that behalf, your worthiness, we single you As our best-moving fair solicitor. Tell him, the daughter of the King of France, 30 On serious business craving quick dispatch, Importunes personal conference with his grace : Haste, signify so much; while we attend, Like humble-visaged suitors, his high will. Boyet. Proud of employment, willingly I go. Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so. [Exit Boyet. Who are the votaries, my loving lords, That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke? 40 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act IL Sc. i. First Lord. Lord Longaville is one. Prin. Know you the man? Mar. I know him, madam: at a marriage-feast, 40 Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnized In Normandy, saw I this Longaville: A man oL soverdgn parts he is esteem'd; Well jitM ^^Tarts, glorious in arms : Nothing becomes him ill that he would well. The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss, If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil. Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will ; 49 Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills It should none spare that come within his power. Prin. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is 't so? Mar. They say so most that most his humours know. Prin. Such short-lived wdts do wither as they grow. Who are the rest? Kath. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd youth. Of all that virtue love for virtue loved: Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill; For he hath wit to make an ill shape good, And shape to win grace, though he had no wit. 60 I saw him at the Duke Alengon's once; And much top Httle of thSft good I saw Is my reporf^^ms great w^orthiness. Ros. Another of these students at that time Was there with him, if I have heard a truth. Biron they call him; but a merrier man. Within the limit of becoming mirth, I never spent an hour's talk withal: His eye begets occasion for his wit; 41 Act II. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST For every object that the one doth catch, 70 The other turns to a nimth-mo^ng jest, Which his fair tongue, conce^ ire^positor. DeHvers in such apt and gracious words, That aged ears play truant at his tales. And younger hearings are quite ravished; So sweet and voluble is his discourse. Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in love, That every one her own hath garnished With such bedecking ornaments of praise? First Lord. Here comes Boyet. Re-enter Boyet. Prin. Now, what admittance, lord? 80 Boyet. Navarre had noticeof yam- fair approach; And he and his competn^s m oath Were all ^"o^ss^ ofo meet you, gentle lady. Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt: He rather means to lodge you in the field. Like one that comes here to besiege his court, Than seek a dispensation for hispay To let you enter his impe^^q noui Here comes Navarre. Enter King, Longaville, Dumain, Biron, and Attendants. King. Fair princess, welcome to the court of Na- varre. 90 Prin. ' Fair ' I give you back again; and ' welcome ' I have not yet: the roof of this court is too high to be yours; and welcome to the wide fields too base to be mine. King. You shall be welcome, madam, to my court. P7'in. I will be welcome, then: conduct me thither. 42 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act IL Sc. i. King. Hear me, dear lady; I have sworn an oath. Prin. Our Lady help my lord! he '11 be forsworn. King. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will. 99 Prin. Why, will shall break it; will, and nothing else. King. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is. Prin. Wo^ my lord so, his ignorance were wise, Wn^e nowms knowledge must prove ignorance. I hear your grace hath sworn out house-keeping: 'Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord, And sin to break it. But pardon me, I am too sudden-bold: To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me. Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming, And suddenly reson^me in my suit. 1 10 King. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may. Prin. You will the sooner, that I were away; For you '11 prove perjured, if you make me stay. Biron. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? Ros. Did I not dance with you in Brabant once? Biron. I know you did. Ros. How needless was it, then, to ask the question! Biron. You^must not be so quick. Ros. 'Tis ' loi^j OF you that spur me with such questions. Biron. Your wit 's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire. Ros. Not till it leave the rider in the mire. 121 Biron. What time o' day? Ros. The hour that fools should ask. Biron. Now fair befall your mask! Ros. Fair fall the face it covers ! Biron. And send you many lovers! Ros. Amen, so you be none. Biron. Nay, then will I be gone. 43 Act II. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST King. Madam, your father here doth intimate The payment of a hundred thousand crowns; 130 Being but the one half of an entire sum Disbursed by my father in his wars. But say that he or we, as neither have. Received that sum, yet there remains unpaid A hundred thousand more; in surety of the which,' One part of Aquitaine is bound to us. Although not valued to the money's worth. If, then, the king your father will restore But that one half which is unsatisfied, We will give up our right in Aquitaine, 140 And hold fair friendship with his majesty. But that, it seems, he little purposeth, For here he doth demand to have repaid A hundred thousand crowns; and not demands, On payment of a hundred thousand crowns, To have his title live in Aqiijtaine; ^ Which we much rather had o^fert withal. And have the money %,our father lent, Than Aquitaine so g^oHjas it is. Dear princess, were not his requests so far 150 From reason's yielding, your fair self should make A yielding, 'gainst some reason, in my breast. And go well satisfied to France again. Prill. You do the king my father too much wrong, And wrong the reputation of your name, In so uriseeming to confess receipt Of that which hath so faithfully been paid. King. I do protest I never heard of it; And if you prove it, I '11 repay it back, Or yield up Aquitaine. 44 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act IL Sc. i. Prin. We arrest your word. i6o Boyet, you can produce acquittances For such a sum from special officers Of Charles his father. King. Satisfy me so. Boyet. So please your grace, the packet is not come, Where that and other specialties are bound: To-morrow you shall have a sight of them. King. It shall suffice me: at which interview All liberal reason I will yield unto. Meantime receive such welcome at my hand As honour, without breach of honour, may 170 Make tender of to thy true w^orthiness: You may not come, fair princess, in my gates; But here without you shall be so received As you shall deem yourself lodged in my heart. Though so denied fair harbour in my house. Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell: To-morrow shall we visit you again. Prin. Sweet health and fair desires consort your grace ! King. Thy own wish wish I thee in every place! [Exit. Biron. Lady, I will commend you to mine own heart. 180 Ros. Pray you, do my commendations; I would be glad to see it. Biron. I would you heard it groan. Ros. Is the fool sick? Biron. Sick at the heart. Ros. Alack, let it blood. Biron. Would that do it good? Ros. My physic says ' ay.' Biron. Will you prick 't with your eye? Ros. No ^piiit, with my knife. 190 Z^^"*- V 45 Act II. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Biron. Now, God save thy life! Ros. And yours from long living! Biron. I cannot stay thanksgiving. [Retiring. Dum. Sir, I pray you, a word: what lady is that same? Boyet. The heir of Alenqon, Katharine her name. Dtim. A gallant lady. Monsieur, fare you well. [Exit. Long. I beseech you a word: what is she in the white? Boyet. A woman sometimes, an you saw her in the light. Long. Perchance light in the light. I desire her name. Boyet. She hath but one for herself, to desire that were a shame. 200 Long. Pray you, sir, whose daughter? Boyet. Her mother's I have heard. Long. God's blessing on your beard. Boyet. Good sir, be not offended. She is an heir of Falconbridge. Long. Nay, my choler is ended. She is a most sweet lady. Boyet. Not unlike, sir, that may be. [Exit Long. Biron. What 's her name in the cap? Boyet. Rosaline, by good hap. 210 Biron. Is she wedded or no? Boyet. To her will, sir, or so. Biron. You are welcome, sir: adieu. Boyet. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you. [Exit Biron. Mar. That last is Biron the merry mad-cap lord: Not a word with him but a jest. Boyet. And every jest but a word. Prin. It was well done of you to take him at his word. Boyet. I was as willing to grapple as he was to board. Mar. Two hot sheeps, marry. 46 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act H. Sc. i. Boyef, And wherefore not ships? 219 No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips. Mar. You sheep, and I a pasture: shall that finish the jest? (S)f^o^ Boyet. So you grant pasture for me. [Oifering to kiss her.^ff?^^^ Mar. /^ Nc^so, gentle beast :^^^^^:^^ My lips are no common , though^^v^raithey be. I^J^*x^^>U Boyet. Belonging to whom? A^^^ Mar. To mv fortunes and me. ^ , a>^..^. Prin. Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles, agree :w^ a Core, This civil war of wits were much better used CO^^ oj On Navarre and his book-men; for here 'tis abused, u^^l^^ Boyet. If my observation, which very seldom lies, "^^^^ Mcc^ By the heart's still rhetoric disclosed with eyes, ^iCa/jz^ccjL Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected. /A30 —7^^-" Prin. With what? Boyet. With that which we lovers entitle affected. ^/<-^^^,^^ Prin. Your reason? a^M-^^^^^y- Boyet. Why, all his behaviours did make their retire i^j^-LzjU-IJ To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire: ^ /(jj^ His heart, like an agate, with your print impress'd, ^v^ot Proud with his form, in his eye pride express'd: -/^ His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see, Did stumble with haste in his eyesight to be; All senses to that sense did make their repair, 240 To feel only looking on fairest of fair: Methought all his senses were lock'd in his eye. As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy; Who, tendering their own worth from where they Did ^St^ou to buy them, along as you pass'd: His face's own margent _ did quote such amazes, That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes 47 Act III. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST I '11 give you Aquitaine, and all that is his, An yow give him for my sake but-pne loving kiss. ^ Prin. Come to our pavilion: Boyet is disposed. 250 ix,(l£uct^oyet. But to speak that in words which his eye hath 7^ A-Oc^jujod^ disclosed. uauJl/ut I only have made a mouth of his eye, Cn^AiA By adding a tongue which I know will not lie. a Ros. Thou art an old love-monger, and speakest skil- V fully. Mar. He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news of him. Ros. Then was Venus like her mother; for her father is but grim. Boyet. Do you hear, my mad wenches? Mar. No. Boyet. What then, do you see? Ros. Ay, our way to be gone. Boyet, You are too hard for me. [Exeunt. ACT THIRD. Scene I. The same. Enter Armada and Moth. Ay^^Arm. Warble, child; make passionate my sense of \P^ ^ ^Arm. Sweet air! Go, fendernesf of years; take this k ^vJ^ ke^, give enlargement to the swain, bring him [Q ^mKz^ aither : I must employ him in a letter to my love. Moth^. Master, will you win your love with a French rawl? 48 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act IIL Sc. i. Arm. How meanest thou? brawling in French? lo Moth. No, my complete master: but to jig off a^a tune at the tongue's end. ^anarv to it with your^ feet, humour it with turningupyour eyeHds,sigh ,____ a note and sing a note, sometime through th^d^ JHuxj^e^iL throat, as if you swallowed love with singing ^ f) -^ love, sometime through the nose, as if^^u snuffed ^f(^ J up love by smelling love; with yourl iat pen t- ^y^ 60u^ house-Hke o'er th^hop of your eyes; with your ^^^zz^;ff;Z-^ \^AM/>ff^^^^Xtti'i crossed oir rour thin-belly doub let, Hke ^^^^c^T^ j^^^^e/x^^ 'tabbit on a spit; or your hands in your pocket, 20 ^^h fJ^AjuU^^ lik^ ^ ^^^ after the old painting; and keep not n^^-f f^/^ too long in one tune, but a snip and away. A^^^*^ ^^ These are complements, these are humours ; ^^(^5"^ these betray nice wenches, that would be be- ./? trayed without these; and make them men of TT^V^ note — do you note me? — that most are affected ^^q ' ^ to these. Arm. How hast thou purchased this experience? Moth. By my penny of observation ^'''"' ^"'^^^^521^^^^^**^"^^ XaJ Moth. ' Thg1iob'^\-^^r ^ I S .. forgot' UcOXAi^ (^j/xma. 3i Arm. Callest thou my love ' hobby-horse '? %ju/ ^'cx^^tji^ j^uu Moth. No, master; the hobby-horse is but acolt,arHiy^ your love perhaps a hackney. But have you /TT^^ forgot your love? fvc^ j^ea. Arm. Almost I had. /j^ccUl^ Moth. Negligent student! learn her by heart. JfyrjooLk) Arm. By heart and in heart, boy. — jy^ — - Moth. And out of heart, master: all those three I will prove. Arm. What wilt thou prove? 40 Moth. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and with- 49 Act III. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST out, upon the instant: by heart you love her, because your heart cannot come by her; in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her. Arm. I am all these three. Moth. And three times as much more, and yet noth- ing at all. Arm. Fetch hither the swain: he must carry me a 50 letter. Moth. A message well sympathized; a horse to be ambassador for an ass. Arm. Ha! ha! what sayest thou? Moth. Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon the horse, for he is very slow-gaited. But I go. Arm. The way is but short: away! Moth. As swift as lead, sir. A7in. The meaning, pretty ingenious? Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow? 60 Moth. Minime, honest master; or rather, master, no. Arui. I say lead is slow. Moth. You are too swift, sir, to say so: Is that lead slow which is fired from a gun? Arm. Sweet smoke of rhetoric! He reputes me a cannon ; and the bullet, that 's he : I shoot thee at the swain. Moth. Thump, theru, and JLfle^. [Exit. Arm. A most ^ute jiwen^; ^Tame and tree of grace! By thy f|£f2^,')lweerwelkin, I must sigh in thy face: Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place. My herald is return'd. 70 50 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act IIL Sc. i. Re-enter Moth zvith Costard. Moth. A wonder, master ! here 's a Costard broken in a shin. Aj^m. Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy .I'envoy begin. Cost. jt\o egma, no riddle, no 1 envoy : no saUve inme^-^^g" . / maffl sir: O, sir, plantain, a plain plantain! no^^^^^^^ I'envoy, no I'envoy; no salve, sir, but a plantain! Arm. By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous smiling. O, pardon me, my stars! Doth the inconsiderate take salve for I'envoy, and the word I'envoy for a salve? 8o Moth. Do the wise think them other?, is not I'envoy a salve? Arm. No, page: it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain. I will example it : The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. There's the moral. Now the I'envoy. Moth. I will add the I'envoy. Say the moral again. Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee. Were still at odds, being but three. 90 Moth. Until the goose came out of door. And stay'd the odds by adding four. Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow with my I'envoy. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. Arm. Until the goose came out of door, Staying the odds by adding four. 51 Act III. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Moth. A good I'envoy, ending in the goose : would JZ^c^cx^^ i^ YOU desire more;? lOO iCoic^^c^i^ The bov hatrr sold him a barga in, a goose, that 's 'jt.iU' flat.' '^^ ^ ^%* Sir, your pennyworth is good, an your goose be fat. t- ^^'^v^^Vo sell a bargain well is as cunning as fast and loose: iMSuLiJU' Let me see ; a fat I'envoy ; ay, that 's a fat goose. 'yf^^^^rm. Come hither, come hither. How did this argument (,y begin? Moth. By saying that a Costard was broken in a shin. Then call'd you for the I'envoy. ^ /7 ^Cost. True, and I for a plantain: thus came your argu- ^^^j^f ment in; ^^ ^^^^"^^"^ Then the boy's fat renvoy/ me goose tliatyou bouE:ht; '^^^^^^^ And hp ended the market. IIO n Arm. But tell me: how was there a Costard broken m a shm? Moth. I will tell you sensibly. Cost. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth: I will speak that I'envoy : I Costard, running out, that was safely within, Fell over the threshold, and broke my shin. Arm. We will talk no more of this matter. Cost. Till there be more matter in the shin. Arm. Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee. 120 Cost. O, marry me to one Frances: I smell some I'envoy, some goose, in this. Arm. By my sweet soul, I mean setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person: thou wert immured, restrained, captivated, bound. Cost. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me loose. Arm, I give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance; 52 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Act IH. Sc. i. and, in lien thereof^irap^e^on thee nothing but this: bear this sigmncan t [giz'ing a letter] 130 to the country maid Jaquenetta^ there is re- muneration; for the best^^^^ mine honour is rewarding my dependerffsT'^'Ioth, follow. [Exit, Moth. Like the sequel, I. Signior Costard, adieu. /XjUjumjcS Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incojg v Jew! {Exit Moth, Now will I look to his remuneration. Re- muneration ! O, that 's the Latin word for three farthings : three farthings— ^remuneration. —'What's the price of this ^^l"'— ' One penny.' — * No, I '11 give you a remuneration : ' 140 why, it carries it. Remuneration ! why, it is a fairer name than French crown. I will never buy and sell out of this word. Enter Biron. Biron. O, my good knave Costard! exceedingly well met. Cost. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration? Biron. What is a remuneration? Cost. Marry, sir, halfpenny farthing. Biron. Why, then, three-farthing worth of silk. 150 Cost. I thank your worship: God be wi' you! Biron. Stay, slave; I must employ thee: As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave, Do one thing for me that I shall entreat. Cost, When would you have it done, sir? Biron. This afternoon. Cost. Well, I will do it, sir; fare you well. Biron. Thou knowest not what it is. 53 Act m. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Cost. I shall know, sir, when I have done it. Biron. Why, villain, thou must know first. i6o Cost. I will come to your worship to-morrow morn- ing. Biron. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, slave, it is but this: A/ ^ ^ The princess comes to hunt here in the park, ^G^cft^o p^^^ -j^ j^gj. train there is a gentle lady; ^^cce^a. ^ When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her 5Jf^^^^ And Rosaline they call her: ask for her; '-^ ' And to her white hand see thou do commend This seal'd-up counsel. There 's thy guerdon ; go. \Giving him a shilling, ^.yy ^ Cost. Gardon, O sweet gardon ! better than remu- 170 ^rzzt^^ neration, a 'leven-pence farthing better • most - jp ^yc£e^ sweet gardon! I will do it, sir, m pfinf r^^ Gardon! Remuneration! [EM. Biron. And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip ; (9/2 jo^ '^ ouj^o.^ fiiy OB^ A^mSc, nay, a night-watch constable; ]S^j^ A domineering:^^^^^5^W^^boY^ ^ y^ Than^ivhom no mortal so iT^gm^^StT This Svimpled . whining, purBTmSTway ward boy ; A This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid; 181 (Vcf M. Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms, ^X/JySOUuuL- ^^^ anointed sovereign of sighs and groans, .^^ Liege of all loiterers and malcontents, Dread prince o K^ackets , king of xfodpiece s, jzitojuio^^^^ imperato and great general '''"' j9'Pt^ trotting^g ^itors : — O my little heart!— ^'^ r ^^^ I to be a^ ^fe^poral of his field . tAitU-^p^ And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop! LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act IV. Sc. i. What! I love! I sue! I seek a wife! 190 A woman, that is Hke a German clock, .- a ^ '' Still a-repairing, ever out of frftr^ r^"^ (^ unQJodf'^ - And never going aright, being a watch, C(/l4uJ^Q . But being watch'd that it may still go right! - — " Nay, to be perjured, which is worst of all; Anij among three, to love the worst of all; A^ ^iitelv wanton with a velvet brow. With two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes ; Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed, Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard: 200 And I to sigh for her! to watch for her! (7) ceTUja^ooixxA- To pray for her ! Go to ; it is a plague i^e^^Lc'^fU^c/Zi/ nH That Cupid will impose for my neglect /[jUtJj^Ui/ ^(AcJf - Of his almighty dreadful little might. — ^ - Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue and groan : Some men must love my lady, and some Toan. \Exit, ACT FOURTH. Scene L The same. Enter the Princess, and her train, a Forester, Boyet, Rosa- line, Maria, and Katharine. Prin. Was that the k*mg, that spurr'd his horse so hard Against the steep uprising of the hill? Boyet. I know not; but I think it was not he. Prin. Whoe'er a' was, a' showed a mounting mind. Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch: On Saturday we will return to France. Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush 55 Act IV. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST That we must stand and play the murderer in? For. Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice; A stand where you may make the fairest shoot. lo Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot. And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot. For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. Prin. What, what? first praise me, and again say no? O short-hved pride! Not fair? alack for woe! For. Yes, madam, fair. Prin. Nay, never paint me now: Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. Here, good my glass, take this for telling true: Fair payment for foul words is more than due. For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit. 20 Prin. See, see, my beauty will be saved by merit! O heresy in fair, fit for these days! A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise. But come, the bow: now mercy goes to kill. And shooting well is then accounted ill. Thus will I save my credit in the shoot: Not wounding, pity would not let me do 't; If wounding, then it was to show my skill. That more for praise than purpose meant to kill. And, out of question, so it is sometimes, 30 Glory grows guilty of detested crimes. When, for fame's sake, for prafse, an outward part, We bend to that the working of the heart; As I for praise alone now seek to spill The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill. Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty Only for praise sake, when they strive to be Lords o'er their lords ? 56 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act IV. Sc. i. Prill. Only for praise: and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord. 40 Boyet. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. Enter Costard. Cost. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady? Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads. Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest? Prin. The thickest and the tallest. Cost. The thickest and the tallest! it is so; truth is truth. An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit, One o' these maids' girdles for your waist should be fit. _ 50 Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest here. Prin. What 's your will, sir ? what 's your will ? Cost. I have a letter from Monsieur Biron to one Lady Rosaline. Prin. O, thy letter, thy letter ! he 's a good friend of mine: Stand aside, good bearer. Boyet, you can carve; Break up this capon. Boyet. I am bound to serve. This letter is mistook, it importeth none here; It is writ to Jaquenetta. Prin. We will read it, I swear. Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear. Boyet. [Reads] By heaven, that thou art fair, is most 60 infallible ; true, that thou art beauteous ; truth itself, that thou art lovely. More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth 57 Act IV. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vas- sal! The magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubi- tate beggar Zenelophon ; and he it was that might rightly say, Veni, vidi, vici; v^hich to anno- thanize in the vulgar, — O base and obscure vulgar! — videlicet, He came, saw, and over- 70 came: he came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came? the king: why did he come? to see: why did he see ? to overcome : to whom came he ? to the beggar: what saw he? the beggar: who overcame he? the beggar. The concflusion is victory : on whose side ? the king's. The captive is enriched: on whose side? the beggar's. The catastrophe is a nuptial: on whose side? the king's : no, on both in one, or one in both. I am the king; for so stands the comparison: thou the 80 beggar: for so witnesset4i thy lowdiness. Shall I command thy love? I may: shall I enforce thy love? I could: shall I entreat thy love? I will. What shalt thou exchange for rags? robes; for titles ? titles ; for thyself ? me. Thus, expecting thy reply, profane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part. Thine, in the dearest design of industry, Don Adrian© de Armado. Thus dost thou hear the Nemean lion roar 90 'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey. Submissive fall his princely feet before, And he from forage will incline to play: But if thou strive, poor soul, what art thou then? Food for his rage, repasture for his den. 58 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act IV. Sc. i. Prin. What plume of feathers is he that indited this let- ter? What vane? what weathercock? did you ever hear better ? Boyet. I am much deceived but I remember the style. Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it erewhile. Boyet, This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court ; lOO A phantasime, a Monarcho, and one that makes sport To the prince and his bookmates. Prill. Thou fellow, a word: Who gave thee this letter ? Cost. I told you ; my lord. Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it? Cost. From my lord to my lady. Prin. From which lord to which lady ? Cost. From my lord Biron, a good master of mine, To a lady of France that he call'd Rosaline. Prin. Thou hast mistaken his letter. Come, lords, away. [To Ros.] Here, sweet, put up this: 'twill be thine an- other day. [Exeunt Princess and train. Boyet. Who is the suitor? who is the suitor? Ros. Shall I teach you to know ? no Boyet. Ay, my continent of beauty. Ros. Why, she that bears the bow. Finely put off ! Boyet. My lady goes to kill horns : but, if thou marry. Hang me by the neck, if horns that year miscarry. Finely put on ! Ros. Well, then, I am the shooter. Boyet. And who is your deer? Ros. If we choose by the horns, yourself come not near. Finely put on, indeed ! 59 Act IV. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Mar. You still wrangle with her, Boyet, and she strikes at the brow. Boyet. But she herself is hit lower : have I hit her now ? Ros. Shall I come upon thee with an old saying, that 121 was a man when King Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit it ? Boyet So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when Queen Guinover of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it. Ros. Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou canst not hit it, my good man. Boyet. An I cannot, cannot, cannot, 129 An I cannot, another can. [Exeunt Ros. and KatJi. Cost. By my troth, most pleasant : how both did fit it ! Mar, A mark marvellous well shot, for they both did hit it. Boyet. A mark ! O, mark but that mark ! A mark, says my lady! Let the mark have a prick in 't, to mete at, if it may be. Mar. Wide o' the bow-hand ! i' faith, your hand is out. Cost. Indeed, a' must shoot nearer, or he '11 ne'er hit the clout. Boyet. An if my hand be out, then belike your hand is in. Cost. Then will she get the upshoot by cleaving the pin. Mar. Come, come, you talk greasily ; your lips grow foul. Cost. She 's too hard for you at pricks, sir : challenge her to bowl. 140 Boyet. I fear too much rubbing. Good night, my good owl. [Exeunt Boyet and Maria. Cost. By my soul, a swain ! a most simple clown ! Lord, Lord, how the ladies and I have put him down ! O' my troth, most sweet jests! most incony vulgar wit ! 60 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act IV. Sc. ii. When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it were, so fit. Armado o' th' one side, — O, a most dainty man ! To see him walk before a lady and to bear her fan ! To see him kiss his hand! and how most sweetly a' will swear! And his page o' t' other side, that handful of wit ! ' Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit! 150 Sola, sola ! [Shout zvithin. [Exit Costard, running. Scene II. The same. Enter Holofcrnes, Sir Nathaniel, and Dull. Nath. Ytry reverend sport, truly ; and done in the testimony of a good conscience. Hoi. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood; ripe as the pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of caelo, the sky, the welkin, the heaven ; and anon falleth like a crab on the face of terra, the soil, the land, the earth. Nath. Truly, Master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least : but, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head. 10 Hoi. Sir Nathaniel, baud credo. . Dull. 'Twas not a baud credo; 'twas a pricket. Hoi. Most barbarous intimation ! yet a kind of insin- uation, as it were, in via, in way, of explication ; facere, as it were, replication, or, rather, osten- tare, to show, as it were, his inclination, after his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or, rather, unlettered, or, ratherest 61 Act IV. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST unconfirmed fashion, to insert again my haud credo for a deer. 20 Dull. I said the deer was not a haud credo ; 'twas a pricket. Hoi Twice-sod simplicity, bis coctus ! O thou monster Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look! A^ath. Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book ; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink : his intellect is not replenished ; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts : And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be. Which we of taste and feeling are, for those parts that do fructify in us more than he. 30 For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool, So were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a school : But omne bene, say I ; being of an old father's mind. Many can brook the weather that love not the wind. Dull. You two are book-men : can you tell me by your wit What was a month old at Cain's birth, that 's not five weeks old as yet ? Hoi. Dictvnna, goodman Dull ; Dictynna, goodman Dull. Dull. What is Dictynna? Nath. A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon. Hoi. The moon was a month old when Adam was no more. And raught not to five weeks when he came to five- score. 41 The allusion holds in the exchange. 62 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act IV. Sc. ii. Dull. 'Tis true indeed; the collusion holds in the ex- change. Hoi. God comfort thy capacity! I say, the allusion holds in the exchange. Dull. And I say, the pollusion holds in the ex- change; for the moon is never but a month old: and I say beside that, 'twas a pricket that the princess killed. Hoi. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal 50 epitaph on the death of the deer? And, to humour the ignorant, call I the deer the princess killed a pricket. Nath. Perge, good Master Holofernes, perge; so it shall please you to abrogate scurrility. Hoi. I will something affect the letter, for it argues facility. The preyful princess pierced and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket ; Some say a sore ; but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting. The dogs did yell : put l to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket ; 60 Or pricket sore, or else sorel ; the people fall a-hoot- ing. If sore be sore, then l to sore makes fifty sores one sorel. Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more l. Nath. A rare talent ! Dull. [Aside] If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent. Hoi. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, 63 Act IV. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST revolutions : these are begot in the ventricle of 70 memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it. Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you : and so may my parishioners ; for their sons are well tutored by you, and their daughters profit very greatly un- der you: you are a good member of the com- monwealth. Hoi. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenuous, they shall want no instruction ; if their daughters be 80 capable, I will put it to them : but vir sapit qui pauca loquitur; a soul feminine saluteth us. Enter Jaquenetta and Costard. Jaq. God give you good morrow, master Parson. Hoi. Master Parson, quasi pers-on. xA.n if one should be pierced, which is the one? Cost. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead. Hoi. Piercing a hogshead ! a good lustre of conceit in a turf of earth ; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine : 'tis pretty ; it is well. 90 Jaq. Good master Parson, be so good as read me this letter : it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armado : I beseech you, read it. Hoi. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne sub umbra Ruminat, — and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan ! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice ; Venetia, Venetia, Chi non ti vede non ti pretia. 64 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act IV. Sc. ii. Old Mantuan, old Mantuan ! who understandeth loo thee not, loves thee not. Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa. Under pardon, sir, what are the contents? or rather, as Horace says in his — What, my soul, verses ? Nath. Ay sir, and very learned. Hoi. Let me hear a staff, a stanze, a verse; lege, domine. Nath. [Reads] If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love? Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd ! Though to myself forsworn, to thee I '11 faithful prove ; Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bow'd. Ill Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes, Where all those pleasures live that art would com- prehend : If knowdedge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice ; Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend ; All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder ; Which is to me some praise that I thy parts ad- mire : Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dread- ful thunder, Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire. Celestial as thou art, O, pardon love this wrong, 120 That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue. Hoi. You find not the apostrophas, and so miss the accent : let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified ; but, for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovidius Naso was the man : and why, indeed. Act IV. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous flow- ers of fancy, the jerks of invention ? Imitari is nothing: so doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider. But, damo- 130 sella virgin, was this directed to you ? Jaq. Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Biron, one of the strange queen's lords. Hoi. I will overglance the superscript : ' To the snow-white hand of the most beauteous Lady Rosaline.' I \\\\\ look again on the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party wri- ting to the person written tmto : ' Your lady- ship's in all desired employment, Biron/ Sir Nathaniel, this Biron is one of the votaries with 140 the king ; and here he hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger queen's, which acciden- tally, or by the way of progression, hath miscar- ried. Trip and go, my sweet ; deliver this paper into the royal hand of the king: it may con- cern much. Stay not thy compliment; I for- give thy duty: adieu. Jaq. Good Costard, go with me. Sir, God save your life! Cost. Have with thee, my girl. [Exeunt Cost, and Jaq. Nath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, 150 very religiously ; and, as a certain father saith, — Hoi. Sir, tell not me of the father ; I do fear colour- able colours. But to return to the verses : did they please you. Sir Nathaniel? Nath. Marvellous well for the pen. Hoi. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of mine : where, if, before repast, it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace, I will, on 66 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act IV. Sc. iii. my privilege I have with the parents of the fore- said child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto ; i6o where I will prove those verses to be very un- learned, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention: I beseech your society. Nath. And thank you too ; for society, saith the text, is the happiness of hfe. Hoi. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it. {To Dull] Sir, I do invite you too ; you shall not say me nay : pauca verba. Away ! the gentles are at their game, and we will to our 169 recreation. [Exeunt, 4 Scene IIL The same. Enter Biron, zvith a paper. Biron. The king he is hunting the deer ; I am cours- ing myself : they have pitched a toil ; I am toiling in a pitch, — pitch that defiles : defile ! a foul word. Well, set thee down, sorrow! for so they say the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool : well proved, wit ! By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax : it kills sheep ; it kills me, I a sheep : well proved again o' my side ! I will not love : if I do, hang me ; i' faith, I will not. O, but her eye, — by this light, but for her eye, I 10 would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love : and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to be melancholy ; and here is part of my rhyme, and here my melan- 67 Act IV. Sc. iii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST choly. Well, she hath one o' my sonnets al- ready : the clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it ; sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not care a pin, if the other three were in. Here comes one with a 20 paper ; God give him grace to groan ! [Stands aside. Enter the King, with a paper. King. Ay me! Biron. [Aside] Shot, by heaven ! Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thumped him with thy bird- ^ bolt under the left pap. In faith, secrets ! King. [Reads] So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows ; Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright 30 Through the transparent bosom of the deep. As doth thy face through tears of mine give light ; Thou shinest in every tear that I do weep : No drop but as a coach doth carry thee ; So ridest thou triumphing in my woe. Do but behold the tears that swell in me. And they thy glory through my grief will show : But do not love thyself ; then thou wilt keep My tears for glasses, and still make we weep. O queen of queens ! how far dost thou excel, 40 No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell. How shall she know my griefs ? I '11 drop the paper : — Sweet leaves, shade folly. Who is he comes here ? [Steps aside. 68 LOVrS LABOUR 'S LOST Act IV. Sc. iii. What, Longaville ! and reading ! listen, ear. Biron, Now, in thy hkeness, one more fool appear ! Enter Longaville, with a paper. Long. Ay me, I am forsworn ! Biron. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers. King. In love, I hope: sweet fellowship in shame! Biron. One drunkard loves another of the name. Long. Am I the first that have been perjured so? 50 Biron. I could put thee in comfort. Not by two that I know : Thou makest the triumviry, the corner-cap of society. The shape of Love's Tyburn that hangs up simplicity. Long. I fear these stubborn lines lack power to move. O sweet Maria, empress of my love! These numbers will I tear, and write in prose. Biron. O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose : Disfigure not his slop. Long. This same shall go. [Reads. Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye, 'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument, 60 Persuade my heart to this false perjury? Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment. A woman I forswore ; but I will prove. Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee : My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love ; Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is : Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhalest this vapour-vow ; in thee it is : If broken then, it is no fault of mine : 70 69 Act IV. Sc. iii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST If by me broke, what fool is not so wise To lose an oath to win a paradise ? Biron. This is the liver-vein, which makes flesh a deity, A green goose a goddess : pure, pure idolatry. God amend us, God amend ! we are much out o' the way. Long. By whom shall I send this ? — Company ! stay. [Steps aside. Biron. All hid, all hid, an old infant play. Like a demigod here sit I in the sky, And wretched fools' secrets heedfuUy o'er-eye. 79 More sacks to the mill ! O heavens, I have my wish ! Enter Dumain zuith a paper. Dumain transform'd ! four woodcocks in a dish ! Dum. O most divine Kate ! Biron. O most profane coxcomb ! Dum. By heaven, the wonder in a mortal eye! Biron. By earth, she is not, corporal, there you lie. Dum. Her amber hairs for foul hath amber quoted. Biron. An amber-colour' d raven was well noted. Dum. As upright as the cedar. Biron. . Stoop, I say; Her shoulder is with child. Dum. As fair as day. Biron. Ay, as some days ; but then no sun must shine. 90 Dum. O that I had my wish! Long. And I had mine! King. And I mine too, good Lord ! Biron. Amen, so I had mine : is not that a good word ? Dum. I would forget her ; but a fever she Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be. 70 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act IV. Sc. iii. Biron. A fever in your blood ! why, then incision Would let her out in saucers : sweet misprision ! Dum. Once more I '11 read the ode that I have writ. Biron. Once more I '11 mark how love can vary wit. Dum. [Reads] On a day — alack the day ! — lOO Love, whose month is ever May, Spied a blossom passing fair Playing in the wanton air : Through the velvet leaves the wind, All unseen, can passage find ; That the lover, sick to death, Wish himself the heaven's breath. Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow ; Air, would I might triumph so ! But, alack, my hand is sworn no Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn ; Vow, alack, for youth unmeet. Youth so apt to pluck a sweet ! Do not call it sin in me. That I am forsworn for thee ; Thou for whom Jove would swear Juno but an Ethiope were ; And deny himself for Jove, Turning mortal for thy love. This will I send and something else more plain, 120 That shall express my true love's fasting pain. O, would the king, Biron, and Longaville, Were lovers too ! Ill, to example ill, Would from my forehead wipe a perjured note; For none offend where all alike do dote. 71 Act IV. Sc. iii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Long. [Advancing] Dumain, thy love is far from charity, That in love's grief desirest society : You may look pale, but I should blush, I know, To be o'erheard and taken napping so. King. [Advancing] Come, sir, you blush; as his your case is such ; 130 You chide at him, offending twice as much ; You do not love Maria ; Longaville Did never sonnet for her sake compile. Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart His loving bosom, to keep down his heart. I have been closely shrouded in this bush And mark'd you both and for you both did blush : I heard your guilty rhymes, observed your fashion. Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion : Ay me! says one; O Jove! the other cries; 140 One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes : You would for paradise break faith and troth ; [To Long. And Jove, for your love, would infringe an oath. [To Dnm. What will Biron say when that he shall hear Faith infringed, which such zeal did swear ? How will he scorn ! how will he spend his wit ! How will he triumph, leap and laugh at it ! For all the wealth that ever I did see, I would not have him know so much by me. Biron. Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy. 150 [Advancing. Ah, good my liege, I pray thee, pardon me ! Good heart, what grace hast thou, thus to reprove These worms for loving, that art most in love? 72 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act IV. Sc. iii. Your eyes do make no coaches ; in your tears There is no certain princess that appears ; You '11 not be perjured, 'tis a hateful thing; Tush, none but minstrels like of sonneting! But are you not ashamed ? nay, are you not. All three of you, to be thus much o'ershot ? You found his mote ; the king your mote did see ; i6o But I a beam do find in each of three. 0, what a scene of foolery have I seen. Of sighs, of groans, of sorrow and of teen ! me, with what strict patience have I sat, To see a king transformed to a gnat! To see great Hercules whipping a gig, And profound Solomon to tune a jig. And Nestor play at push-pin with the boys, And critic Timon laugh at idle toys ! Where lies thy grief, O, tell me, good Dumain? 170 And, gentle Longaville, where lies thy pain ? And where my liege's ? all about the breast : A caudle, ho ! King. Too bitter is thy jest. Are we betray'd thus to thy over-view? Biron. Not you to me, but I betray'd by you : 1, that am honest ; I, that hold it sin To break the vow I am engaged in ; 1 am betray'd, by keeping company With men like you, men of inconstancy. When shall you see me write a thing in rhyme? 180 Or groan for love? or spend a minute's time In pruning me? W^hen shall you hear that I Will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye, A gait, a state, a brow, a breast, a waist, 73 Act IV. Sc. iii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST A leg, a limb? — King. Soft ! whither away so fast ? A true man or a thief that gallops so? Biron. I post from love : good lover, let me go. Enter Jaquenetta and Costard. Jaq. God bless the king! King. What present hast thou there? Cost. Some certain treason. King. What makes treason here ? Cost. Nay, it makes nothing, sir. King. If it mar nothing neither, 190 The treason and you go in peace away together. Jaq. I beseech your grace, let this letter be read : Our parson misdoubts it ; 'twas treason, he said. King. Biron, read it over. [Giving him the paper. Where hadst thou it ? Jaq. Of Costard. King. Where hadst thou it ? Cost. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio. [Biron tears the letter. King. How now ! what is in you ? why dost thou tear it ? Biron. A toy, my liege, a toy: your grace needs not fear it. 200 Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore let 's hear it. Dnm. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. [Gathering up the pieces. Biron. [To Costard] Ah, you whoreson loggerhead ! you were born to do me shame. Guilty, my lord, guilty ! I confess, I confess. King. What? 74 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Act IV. Sc. iii. Biron. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess : He, he, and you, and you, my liege, and I, Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die. O, dismiss this audience, and I shall tell you more. Dmn, Now the number is even. Biron. True, true ; we are four. Will these turtles be gone ? 211 Xing. Hence, sirs; away! Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay. [Exeunt Costard and Jaquenetta. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O, let us embrace! As true we are as flesh and blood can be : The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face ; Young blood doth not obey an old decree : We cannot cross the cause why we were born ; Therefore of all hands must we be forsworn. King. What, did these rent lines show some love of thine ? Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who sees the heavenly Rosaline, 220 That, like a rude and savage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Bows not his vassal head, and strucken blind Kisses the base ground with obedient breast ? What peremptory eagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow. That is not blinded by her majesty? King. What zeal, what fury hath inspired thee now? My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon ; She an attending star, scarce seen a light. 230 Biroti. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Biron : O, but for my love, day would turn to night ! 75 Act IV. Sc. iii. LOVrS LABOUR'S LOST Of all complexions the cull'd sovereignty Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek ; Where several worthies make one dignity, Where nothing wants that want itself doth seek. Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues, — Fie, painted rhetoric ! O, she needs it not : To things of sale a seller's praise belongs. She passes praise ; then praise too short doth blot. A withered hermit, five-score winters worn, 241 Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye : Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy : O, 'tis the sun that maketh all things shine. King. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony. Biron. Is ebony like her? O wood divine! A wife of such wood were felicity. O, who can give an oath ? where is a book ? That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack, 250 If that she learn not of her eye to look : No face is fair that is not full so black. King. O paradox ! Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons and the suit of night ; And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well. Biron. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light. O, if in black my lady's brows be deck'd. It mourns that painting and usurping hair Should ravish doters with a false aspect ; And therefore is she born to make black fair. 260 Her favour turns the fashion of the days, For native blood is counted painting now ; And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise, Paints itself black, to imitate her brow. 76 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Act IV. Sc. iii. Dum. To look like her are chimney-sweepers black. Long. And since her time are colliers counted bright. King. And Ethiopes of their sweet complexion crack. Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light. Biron. Your mistresses dare never come in rain, For fear their colours should be wash'd away. 270 King. 'Twere good, yours did ; for, sir, to tell you plain, I '11 find a fairer face not wash'd to-day. Biron. I '11 prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here. King. No devil will fright thee then so much as she. Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. Long. Look, here 's thy love : my foot and her face see. Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes, Her feet were much too dainty for such tread! Dum. O vile ! then, as she goes, what upward lies The street should see as she walk'd overhead. 280 King. But what of this ? are we not all in love ? Biron. Nothing so sure ; and thereby all forsworn. King. Then leave this chat ; and, good Biron, now prove Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. Dum. Ay, marry, there ; some flattery for this evil. Long. O, some authority how to proceed ; Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil. Dum. Some salve for perjury. Biron. 'Tis more than need. Have at you, then, affection's men at arms. Consider what you first did swear unto, 290 To fast, to study, and to see no woman ; Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth. Say, can you fast ? your stomachs are too young ; And abstinence engenders maladies. And where that you have vow'd to study, lords, 77 Act IV. Sc. iii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST In that each of you have forsworn his book, Can you still dream and pore and thereon look? For when would you, my lord, or you, or you. Have found the ground of study's excellence Without the beauty of a woman's face ? 300 From women's eyes this doctrine I derive : They are the ground, the books, the academes From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire. Why, universal plodding prisons up The nimble spirits in the arteries. As motion and long-during action tires The sinewy vigour of the traveller. Now, for not looking on a woman's face, You have in that forsworn the use of eyes And study too, the causer of your vow^; 310 For w^here is any author in the world Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye? Learning is but an adjunct to ourself, And where we are our learning likewise is. Then when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes. Do we not likewise see our learning there ? O, we have made a vow to study, lords. And in that vow we have forsworn our books. For when would you, my liege, or you, or you. In leaden contemplation have found out 320 Such fiery numbers as the prompting eyes Of beauty's tutors have enrich'd you with? Other slow arts entirely keep the brain ; And therefore, finding barren practisers. Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil : But love, first learned in a lady's eyes. Lives not alone immured in the brain ; 78 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act IV. Sc. iii. But, with the motion of all elements, Courses as swift as thought in every power, And gives to every power a double power, 330 Above their functions and their offices. It adds a precious seeing to the eye ; A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind ; A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound. When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd : Love's feeling is more soft and sensible Than are the tender horns of cockled snails ; Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste: For valour, is not Love a Hercules, Still climbing trees in the Hesperides ? 340 Subtle as sphinx; as sweet and musical As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair ; And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods Make heaven drowsy with the harmony. Never durst poet touch a pen to write Until his ink were temper'd with Love's sighs ; O, then his lines would ravage savage ears, And plant in tyrants mild humility. From women's eyes this doctrine I derive ; They sparkle still the right Promethean fire ; 350 They are the books, the arts, the academes. That show, contain and nourish all the world : Else none at all in aught proves excellent. Then fools you were these women to forswear ; Or keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools. For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love ; Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men ; Or for men's sake, the authors of these women; Or women's sake, by whom we men are men ; 79 Act IV. Sc. iii. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves, 360 Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.- It is religion to be thus forsworn, For charity itself fulfils the law, And who can sever love from charity? King. Saint Cupid, then ! and, soldiers to the field ! Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, lords ; Pell-mell, down with them ! but be first advised, In conflict that you get the sun of them. Long, Now to plain-dealing ; lay these glozes by : Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France ? 370 King. And win them too : therefore let us devise Some entertainment for them in their tents. Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them thither ; Then homeward every man attach the hand Of his fair mistress : in the afternoon We will with some strange pastime solace them. Such as the shortness of the time can shape ; For revels, dances, masks and merry hours Forerun fair Love, strewing her way with flowers. King. Away, away ! no time shall be omitted 380 That will betime, and may by us be fitted. Biron. Allons ! allons ! Sow'd cockle reap'd no com ; And justice always whirls in equal measure: Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn ; If so, our copper buys no better treasure. [Exeunt. 80 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. i. ACT FIFTH. Scene L The same. Enter Holof ernes, Sir Nathaniel, and Dull Hoi Satis quod sufficit. Nath. I praise God for you, sir: your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious ; pleas- ant without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy. I did con- verse this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado. Hoi Novi hominem tanquam te : his humour is lo lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thra- sonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too af- fected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it. Nath. A most singular and choice epithet. {Draws out his table-book. Hoi He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasimes, such in sociable and point- devise companions ; such rackers of orthography, 20 as to speak dout, fine, when he should say doubt ; del, when he should pronounce debt, — d, e, b, t, not d, e, t : he clepeth a calf, cauf ; half, hauf ; neighbour vocatur nebour ; neigh abbreviated ne. This is abhominable, — which he would call ab- 8i Act V. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST bominable : it insinuateth me of insanie : ne intelligis, domine ? to make frantic, lunatic. Nath. Laus Deo, bene intelligo. Hoi. Bon, bon, fort bon ! Priscian a little scratched ; 'twill serve. 30 Nath. Videsne quis venit ? Hoi. Video, et gaudeo. Enter Armado, Moth, and Costard. Arm. Chirrah! [To Moth. Hot. Quare chirrah, not sirrah ? Arm. Men of peace, well encountered. Hoi. Most military sir, salutation. Moth. [Aside to Costard] They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps. Cost. O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee 40 for a word ; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus : thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon. Moth. Peace ! the peal begins. Arm. [To HoL] Monsieur, are you not lettered? Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the horn-book. What is a, b, spelt backward, with the horn on his head? Hoi. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. Moth. Ba, most silly sheep with a horn. You hear 50 his learning. Hoi. Quis, quis, thou consonant ? Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them ; or the fifth, if I. Hoi. I will repeat them, — a, e, i, — 82 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. i. Moth. The sheep : the other two concludes it, — o, u. Arm. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, a quick venue of wit, — snip, snap, quick and home ! it rejoiceth my intellect : true wit ! 60 Moth. Offered by a child to an old man ; which is wit-old. Hoi. What is the figure? what is the figure? Moth. Horns. Hoi. Thou disputest Hke an infant: go, whip thy gig- Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circum circa, — a gig of a cuckold's horn. Cost. An I had but one penny in the world, thou 70 shouldst have it to buy gingerbread : hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, thou halfpenny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased that thou wert but my bastard, what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. Hoi. O, I smell false Latin ; dunghill for unguem. Arm. Arts-man, preambulate, we will be singuled 80 from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-house on the top of the mountain ? Hoi. Or mons, the hill. Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain. Hoi. I do, sans question. Arm. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and affection to congratulate the princess at her 83 Act V. Sc. i. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST pavilion in the posteriors of this day, which the rude multitude call the afternoon. Hoi. The posterior of the day, most generous sir, 90 is liable, congruent and measurable for the af- ternoon : the word is well culled, chose, sweet and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure you. Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman, and my familiar, I do assure ye, very good friend: for what is inward between us, let it pass. I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy ; I beseech thee, apparel thy head: and among other im- portant and most serious designs, and of great import, indeed, too, but let that pass : for I must 100 tell thee, it will please his grace, by the world, sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder, and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excre- ment, with my mustachio ; but, sweet heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no fable : some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world ; but let that pass. The very all of all is, — but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy, — that the king would have no me present the princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antique, or firework. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet self are good at such eruptions and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance. Hoi. Sir, you shall present before her the Nine Worthies. Sir, as concerning some entertain- 84 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act V. Sc. i. ment of time, some show in the posterior of this 120 day, to be rendered by our assistants, at the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman, before the princess ; I say none so fit as to present the Nine Worthies. Nath. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them? Hoi. Joshua, yourself; myself and this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabaeus ; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the Great; the page, Hercules, — 130 Arm. Pardon, sir; error: he is not quantity enough for that Worthy's thumb : he is not so big as the end of his club. Hoi. Shall I have audience? he shall present Her- cules in minority : his enter and exit shalf be strangling a snake ; and I will have an apology for that purpose. Moth. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry, " Well done, Her- cules ! now thou crushest the snake ! " that is 140 the way to make an offence gracious, though few have the grace to do it. Arm. For the rest of the Worthies? — Hoi. I will play three myself. Moth. Thrice-worthy gentleman ! Arm. Shall I tell you a thing ? Hoi. We attend. Arm. We will have, if this fadge not, an antique. I beseech you, follow. Hoi. Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word 150 all this while. 85 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Dull. Nor understood none neither, sir. Hoi. Allons ! we will employ thee. Dull. I '11 make one in a dance, or so; or I will play On the tabor to the Worthies, and let them dance the hay. HoL Most dull, honest Dull ! To our sport, away ! [Exeunt. Scene H. The same. Enter the Princess, Katharine, Rosaline, and Maria. Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart, If fairings come thus plentifully in : A lady wall'd about with diamonds ! Lqpk you what I have from the loving king. Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with that? Prin. Nothing but this ! yes, as much love in rhyme As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper, Writ o' both sides the leaf, margent and all. That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name. Ros. That was the way to make his godhead wax, lo For he hath been five thousand years a boy. Kath. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too. Ros. You '11 ne'er be friends with him ; a' killed your sis- ter. Kath. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy; And so she died : had she been light, like you, Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit, She might ha' been a grandam ere she died : And so may you ; for a light heart lives long. Ros. What 's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word? Kath. A light condition in a beauty dark. 20 86 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V, Sc. ii. Ros. We need more light to find your meaning out. Kath. You '11 mar the light by taking it in snuff; Therefore I '11 darkly end the argument. Ros. Look, what you do, you do it still i' th' dark. Kath. So do not you, for you are a light wench. Ros. Indeed I weigh not you, and therefore light. Kath. You weigh me not ? — 0,that 's you care not for me. Ros. Great reason ; for ' past cure is still past care.' Prin. Well bandied both ; a set of wit well play'd. But, Rosaline, you have a favour too ; 30 Who sent it? and what is it? Ros. T would you knew : An if my face were but as fair as yours, My favour were as great ; be witness this. Nay, I have verses too, I thank Biron : The numbers true ; and, were the numbering too, I were the fairest goddess on the ground : I am compared to twenty thousand fairs. O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter ! Prin. Any thing like? Ros. i\Iuch in the letters ; nothing in the praise. 40 Prill. Beauteous as ink ; a good conclusion. Kath. Fair as a text B in a copy-book. Ros. 'Ware pencils, ho ! let me not die your debtor. My red dominical, my golden letter : O that your face were not so full of O's ! Kath. A pox of that jest ! and I beshrew all shrows. Prin. But, Katharine, what was sent to you from fair Dumain ? Kath. Madam, this glove. Prin. Did he not send you twain ? Kath. Yes, madam, and, moreover, Some thousand verses of a faithful lover, 50 87 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST A huge translation of hypocrisy, Vilely compiled, profound simplicity. Mar. This and these pearls to me sent Longaville : The letter is too long by half a mile. Prill. I think no less. Dost thou not wish in heart The chain were longer and the letter short? Mar. Ay, or I would these hands might never part. Prin. We are wise girls to mock our lovers so. Ros. They are worse fools to purchase mocking so. That same Biron I '11 torture ere I go : 60 O that I knew he were but in by the week ! How I would make him fawn, and beg, and seek, And wait the season, and observe the times. And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes, And shape his service wholly to my bests, And make him proud to make me proud that jests ! So perttaunt-like would I o'ersway his state. That he should be my fool, and I his fate. Prin. None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd, As wit turn'd fool : folly, in wisdom hatch'd, 70 Hath wisdom's warrant and the help of school, And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool. Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such excess As gravity's revolt to wantonness. Mar. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote ; Since all the power thereof it doth apply To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity. Prin. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face. Enter Boyet. Boyet. O, I am stabb'd with laughter! Where's her grace ? LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Prill. Thy news, Boyet ? Boyct. Prepare, madam, prepare ! 8i Arm, wenches, arm ! encounters mounted are Against your peace : Love doth approach disguised, Armed in arguments ; you '11 be surprised : Muster your wits ; stand in your own defence ; Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence. Prin. Saint Denis to Saint Cupid ! What are they That charge their breath against us ? say, scout, say. Boyet. Lender the cool shade of a sycamore I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour ; 90 When, lo ! to interrupt my purposed rest, Toward that shade I might behold addrest The king and his companions : warily I stole into a neighbour thicket by, And overheard what you shall overhear; That, by and by, disguised they will be here. Their herald is a pretty knavish page. That well by heart hath conn'd his embassage : Action and accent did they teach him there ; * Thus must thou speak,' and ' thus thy body bear : ' And ever and anon they made a doubt loi Presence majestical would put him out; ' For,' quoth the king, ' an angel shalt thou see ; Yet fear not thou, but speak audaciously.' The boy replied, ' An angel is not evil ; I should have fear'd her, had she been a devil.' With that, all laugh'd, and clapped him on the shoulder. Making the bold wag by their praises bolder : One rubb'd his elbow thus, and fleer'd and swore A better speech was never spoke before ; i lO 89 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Another, with his finger and his thumb, Cried, ' Via ! we will do 't come what will come ; ' The third he caper'd, and cried, ' All goes well ;' The fourth turn'd on the toe, and down he fell. With that, they all did tumble on the ground, With such a zealous laughter, so profound, That in this spleen ridiculous appears. To check their folly, passion's solemn tears. Prin, But what, but what, come they to visit us? Boyet, They do, they do ; and are apparell'd thus, 120 Like Muscovites or Russians, as I guess. Their purpose is to parle, to court and dance; And every one his love-feat will advance Unto his several mistress, which they '11 know By favours several which they did bestow. Prin. And will they so? the gallaifts shall be task'd; For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd ; And not a man of them shall have the grace. Despite of suit, to see a lady's face. Hold, Rosaline, this favour thou shalt wear, 130 And then the king will court thee for his dear ; Hold, take thou this, my sweet, and give me thine. So shall Biron take me for Rosaline. And change you favours too ; so shall your loves Woo contrary, deceived by these removes. Ros. Come on, then ; wear the favours most in sight. Kath. But in this changing what is your intent? Prin. The effect of my intent is to cross theirs : They do it but in mocking merriment ; And mock for mock is only my intent. 140 Their several counsels they unbosom shall To loves mistook, and so be mock'd withal 90 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Upon the next occasion that we meet, With visages display'd, to talk and greet. Ros. But shall we dance, if they desire us to 't? Prill. No, to the death, we will not move a foot : Nor to their penn'd speech render we no grace ; But while 'tis spoke each turn away her face. Boyet. Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart. And quite divorce his memory from his part. 150 Prin. Therefore I do it ; and I make no doubt The rest will ne'er come in, if he be out. There 's no such sport as sport by sport overthrown ; To make theirs ours, and ours none but our own : So shall we stay, mocking intended game, And they, well mock'd, depart away with shame. [Trumpet sounds within. Boyet. The trumpet sounds : be mask'd ; the mask- ers come. [The ladies mask. Enter Blackamoors with music; Moth; the King, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain, in Russian habits and masked. Moth. All hail, the richest beauties on the earth ! — Boyet. Beauties no richer than rich taffeta. Moth. A holy parcel of the fairest dames. 160 [The ladies turn their hacks to him. That ever turn'd their — backs— to mortal views ! Biron. [Aside to Moth] Their eyes, villain, their eyes. Moth. That ever turn'd their eyes to mortal views !— Out— Boyet. True; out indeed. Moth. Out of your favours, heavenly spirits, vouchsafe Not to behold — Biron. [Aside to Moth] Once to behold, rogue. 91 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVrS LABOUR *S LOST Moth. Once to behold with your sun-beamed eyes, with your sun-beamed eyes — Boyet. They will not answer to that epithet; 170 You were best call it ' daughter-beamed eyes.' Moth. They do not mark me, and that brings me out. Biron. Is this your perfectness ? be gone, you rogue ! [Exit Moth. Ros. What would these strangers? know their minds, Boyet : If they do speak our language, 'tis our will That some plain man recount their purposes : Know what they would. Boyet. What would you with the princess? Biron. Nothing but peace and gentle visitation. Ros. What would they, say they? 180 Boyet. Nothing but peace and gentle visitation. Ros. Why, that they have ; and bid them so be gone. • Boyet. She says, you have it, and you may be gone. Kijtg. Say to her, we have measured many miles To tread a measure with her on this grass. Boyet. They say, that they have measured many a mile To tread a measure with you on this grass. Ros. It is not so. Ask them how many inches Is in one mile : if they have measured many. The measure then of one is easily told. 190 Boyet. If to come hither you have measured miles, And many miles, the princess bids you tell How many inches doth fill up one mile. Biron. Tell her, we measure them by weary steps. Boyet. She hears herself. Ros. How many weary steps, Of many weary miles you have o'ergone, Are number'd in the travel of one mile? 92 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Biron. We number nothing that we spend for you : Our duty is so rich, so infinite, That we may do it still without accompt. 200 Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face, That we, like savages, may worship it. Ros, My face is but a moon, and clouded too. King. Blessed are clouds, to do as such clouds do ! Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy stars, to shine. Those clouds removed, upon our watery eyne. Ros. O vain petitioner ! beg a greater matter ; Thou now request'st but moonshine in the water. King. Then, in our measure do but vouchsafe one change. Thou bid'st me beg : this begging is not strange. 210 Ros. Play, music, then ! Nay, you must do it soon. [Music plays. Not yet ! no dance ! Thus change I like the moon. King. Will you not dance? How come you thus estranged ? Ros. You took the moon at full, but now she 's changed. King. Yet still she is the moon, and I the man. The music plays; vouchsafe some motion to it. Ros. Our ears vouchsafe it. King. But your legs should do it. Ros. Since you are strangers, and come here by chance. We '11 not be nice : take hands. We will not dance. King. Why take we hands, then ? Ros. Only to part friends : 220 Curtsey, sweet hearts ; and so the measure ends. King. More measure of this measure ; be not nice. Ros. We can afford no more at such a price. King. Prize you yourselves : what buys your company ? Ros. Your absence only. King, That can never be. 93 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Ros. Then cannot we be bought : and so, adieu ; Twice to your visor, and half once to you. King. If you deny to dance, let 's hold more chat. Ros. In private, then. King. I am best pleased with that. [They converse apart. Biron. White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee. Prin. Honey, and milk, and sugar; there is three. 231 Biron. Nay then, two treys, an if you grow so nice, Metheglin, wort, and malmsey : well run, dice ! There 's half-a-dozen sweets. Prin. Seventh sweet, adieu; Since you can cog, I '11 play no more with you. Biron. One word in secret. Prin. Let it not be sweet. Biron. Thou grievest my gall. Prin. Gall! bitter. Biron. Therefore meet.' [They converse apart. Diiin. Will you vouchsafe with me to change a word ? Mar. Name it. Dum. Fair lady, — Mar. Say you so ! Fair lord, — Take that for your fair lady. Dum. Please it you, 240 As much in private, and I '11 bid adieu. [They converse apart. Kath. What, was your vizard made without a tongue? Long. I know the reason, lady, why you ask. Kath. O for your reason ! quickly, sir ; I long. Long. You have a double tongue within your mask, And would afford my speechless vizard half. 94 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Kath. Veal, quoth the Dutchman. Is not 'veal' a calf? Long. A calf, fair lady! Kath. No, a fair lord calf. Long. Let 's part the word. Kath. No, I '11 not be your half : Take all, and wean it; it may prove an ox. 250 Long. Look, how you butt yourself in these sharp mocks ! Will you give horns, chaste lady ? do not so. Kath. Then die a calf, before your horns do grow. Long. One word in private with you, ere I die. Kath. Bleat softly, then ; the butcher hears you cry. [They converse apart. Boyet. The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen As is the razor's edge invisible. Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen ; Above the sense of sense ; so sensible Seemeth their conference ; their conceits have wings Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, swifter things. 261 Ros. Not one word more, my maids ; break off, break off. Biron. By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure scoff ! King. Farewell, mad wenches ; you have simple wits. Prin. Twenty adieus, my frozen Muscovits. [Exeunt King, Lords, and Blackamoors. Are these the breed of wits so wonder'd at ? Boyet. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths puff'd out, Ros. Well-liking wits they have ; gross, gross ; fat, fat. Prin. O poverty in wit, kingly-poor flout ! Will they not, think you, hang themselves to-night? Or ever, but in vizards, show their faces? 271 This pert Biron was out of countenance quite. Ros. O, they were all in lamentable cases. 95 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST The king was weeping-ripe for a good word. Prin. Biron did swear himself out of all suit. Mar. Dumain was at my service, and his sword : No point, quoth I ; my servant straight was mute. Kath. Lord Longaville said, I came o'er his heart; And trow you what he call'd me ? Prin. Qualm, perhaps. Kath. Yes, in good faith. Prin. Go, sickness as thou art ! 280 Ros. Well, better wits have worn plain statute-caps. But will you hear? the king is my love sworn. Prin. And quick Biron hath plighted faith to me. Kath. And Longaville was for my service born. Mar. Dumain is mine, as sure as bark on tree. Boyet. Madam, and pretty mistresses, give ear: Immediately they will again be here In their own shapes ; for it can never be They will digest this harsh indignity. Prin. Will they return ? Boyet. They will, they will, God knows, 290 And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows: Therefore change favours ; and, when they repair. Blow like sweet roses in this summer air. Prin. How blow ? how blow ? speak to be understood. Boyet. Fair ladies mask'd are roses in their bud ; Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown. Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown. Prin. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do, If they return in their own shapes to woo ? Ros. Good madam, if by me you '11 be advised, 300 Let 's mock them still, as well known as disguised : Let us complain to them what fools were here, 96 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Disguised like Muscovites, in shapeless gear ; And wonder what they were and to what end Their shallow shows and prologue vilely penn'd, And their rough carriage so ridiculous, Should be presented at our tent to us. Boyet. Ladies, withdraw : the gallants are at hand. Prin. Whip to our tents, as roes run o'er land. [Exeunt Princess, Rosaline, Katharine, and Maria. Re-enter the King, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain, in their proper habits. King. Fair sir, God save you ! Where 's the princess ? Boyet. Gone to her tent. Please it your majesty 311 Command me any service to her thither? King. That she vouchsafe me audience for one word. Boyet, I will ; and so will she, I know, my lord. [Exit. Biron. This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons pease, And utters it again when God doth please: He is wit's pedler, and retails his wares At wakes and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs ; And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know. Have not the grace to grace it with such show. 320 This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve ; Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve ; A' can carve too, and lisp : why, this is he That kiss'd his hand away in courtesy ; This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice. That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice In honourable terms : nay, he can sing A mean most meanly ; and in ushering. Mend him who can : the ladies call him sweet ; The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet : 330 97 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST This is the flower that smiles on every one, To show his teeth as white as whale's bone ; And consciences, that will not die in debt, Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet. King. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart. That put Armado's page out of his part ! Biron. See where it comes ! Behaviour, what wert thou Till this madman show'd thee? and what art thou now? Re-enter the Princess, ushered by Boyet; Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine. King. All hail, sweet madam, and fair time of day ! Prin. ' Fair ' in ' all hail ' is foul, as I conceive. 340 King. Construe my speeches better, if you may. Prin, Then wish me better ; I will give you leave. King. We came to visit you, and purpose now To lead you to our court : vouchsafe it then. Prin. This field shall hold me : and so hold your vow : Nor God, nor I, delights in perjured men. King. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke : The virtue of your eye must break my oath. Prin. You nickname virtue ; vice you should have spoke ; For virtue's office never breaks men's troth. 350 Now by my maiden honour yet as pure As the unsullied lily I protest, A world of torments though I should endure, I would not yield to be your house's guest ; So much I hate a breaking cause to be Of heavenly oaths, vow'd with integrity. King. O, you have lived in desolation here, Unseen, unvisited, much to our shame. Prin. Not so, my lord ; it is not so, I swear ; 98 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. We have had pastimes here and pleasant game : A mess of Russians left us but of late. 361 King. How, madam ! Russians ! yY — Prin. Ay, in truth, my lord ; Trim gallants, full of courtship and of state. Ros. Madam, speak true. It is not so, my lord: My lady, to the manner of the days. In courtesy gives undeserving praise. We four indeed confronted were with four In Russian habit : here they stay'd an hour, And talk'd apace ; and in that hour, my lord. They did not bless us with one happy word. 370 I dare not call them fools ; but this I think. When they are thirsty, fools would fain have drink. Biron. This jest is dry to me. Fair gentle sweet. Your wit makes wise things foolish : when we greet, With eyes best seeing, heaven's fiery eye. By light we lose light : your capacity Is of that nature that to your huge store Wise things seem foolish and rich things but poor. Ros. This proves you wise and rich, for in my eye, — Biron. I am a fool, and full of poverty. 380 Ros. But that you take what doth to you belong. It were a fault to snatch words from my tongue. Biron. O, I am yours, and all that I possess ! Ros. All the fool mine ? Biron. I cannot give you less. Ros. Which of the vizards was it that you wore ? Biron. Where? when? what vizard? why demand you this ? Ros. There, then, that vizard ; that superfluous case That hid the worse, and show'd the better face. 99 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Kdng. We are descried; they'll mock us now down- right. Dum. Let us confess, and turn it to a jest. 390 Prin. Amazed, my lord ? why looks your highness sad ? Ros, Help, hold his brows ! he '11 swound ! Why look you pale ? Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy. Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold longer out ? Here stand I : lady, dart thy skill at me ; Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout ; Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance ; Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit ; And I will wish thee never more to dance, 400 Nor never more in Russian habit wait. O, never w411 I trust to speeches penn'd. Nor to the motion of a schoolboy's tongue ; Nor never come in vizard to my friend ; Nor woo in rhyme, Hke a blind harper's song ! Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, Figures pedantical ; these summer-flies Have blown me full of maggot ostentation : I do forswear them ; and I here protest, 410 By this white glove, — how white the hand, God knows ! — Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes : And, to begin, wench, — so God help me, la ! — My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw. Ros. Sans sans, I pray you. Biron. Yet I have a trick Of the old rage : — bear with me, I am sick ; 100 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. I '11 leave it by degrees. Soft, let us see : Write, ' Lord have mercy on us ' on those three ; They are infected ; in their hearts it lies ; 420 They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes ; These lords are visited ; you are not free. For the Lord's tokens on you do I see. Prin, No, they are free that gave these tokens to us. Biron. Our states are forfeit : seek not to undo us. Ros. It is not so ; for how can this be true. That you stand forfeit, being those that sue ? Biron. Peace ! for I will not have to do with you. Ros. Nor shall not, if I do as I intend. Biron. Speak for yourselves ; my wit is at an end. 430 King. Teach us, sweet madam, for our rude transgression Some fair excuse. Prin. The fairest is confession. Were not you here but even now disguised ? King. Madam, I was. Prin. And were you well advised ? King. I was, fair madam. Prin. When you then were here, What did you whisper in your lady's ear? King. That more than all the world I did respect her. Prin. When she shall challenge this, you will reject her. King. Upon mine honour, no. Prin. Peace, peace ! forbear : Your oath once broke, you force not to forswear. 440 King. Despise me, when I break this oath of mine. Prin. I will : and therefore keep it. Rosaline, What did the Russian whisper in your ear? Ros. Madam, he swore that he did hold me dear As precious eyesight, and did value me lOI Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Above this world ; adding thereto, moreover, That he would wed me, or else die my lover. Priu. God give thee joy of him ! the noble lord Most honourably doth uphold his word. King. What mean you, madam ? by my life, my troth, 450 I never swore this lady such an oath. Ros. , By heaven, you did ; and to confirm it plain, You gave me this : but take it, sir, again. King. My faith and this the princess I did give : I knew her by this jewel on her sleeve. Prin. Pardon me, sir, this jewel did she wear; And Lord Biron, I thank him, is my dear. What, will you have me, or your pearl again ? Biron. Neither of either ; I remit both twain. I see the trick on 't : here was a consent, 460 Knowing aforehand of our merriment, To dash it like a Christmas comedy : Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany, Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick, j i That smiles his cheek in years, and knows the trick ! \ To make my lady laugh when she 's disposed, \ Told our intents before ; which once disclosed, \ The ladies did change favours ; and then we, \Following the signs, woo'd but the sign of she. Wow, to our perjury to add more terror, 470 We are again forsworn, in will and error. Much upon this it is : and might not you [To Boyet. Forestall our sport, to make us thus untrue? Do not you know my lady's foot by the squier, And laugh upon the apple of her eye ? And stand between her back, sir, and the fire, I Holding a trencher, jesting merrily ? 102 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. You put our page out : go, you are allow'd ; Die when you will, a smock shall be your shroud. You leer upon me, do you ? there 's an eye 480 Wounds like a leaden sword. Boyet. Full merrily Hath this brave manage, this career, been run. 5tron. Lo, he is tilting straight! Peace! I have done. Enter Costard. Welcome, pure wit ! thou part'st a fair fray. Cost. O Lord, sir, they would know Whether the three Worthies shall come in or no. Biron. What, are there but three? (;^^f^ No, sir ; but it is vara fine, For every one pursents three. Biron. And three times thrice is nine. Cost. Not so, sir ; under correction, sir ; I hope it is not so. You cannot beg us, sir, I can assure you, sir ; we know what we know: 49° I hope, sir, three times thrice, sir, — Biron. Is not nine. Cost. Under correction, sir, we know whereuntil it doth amount. Biron, By Jove, I always took three threes for nine. Cost. O Lord, sir, it were pity you should get your living by reckoning, sir. Biron. How much is it? Cost. O Lord, sir, the parties themselves, the actors, sir, will show whereuntil it doth amount: for 500 mine own part, I am, as they say, but to parfect one man in one poor man, Pompion the Great, sir. 103 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Biron. Art thou one of the Worthies ? Cost. It pleased them to think me worthy of Pompion the Great : for mine own part, I know not the degree of the Worthy, but I am to stand for him. Biron. Go, bid them prepare. Cost. We will turn it finely off, sir; we will take some care. [Exit. 510 King. Biron, they will shame us : let them not approach. Biron. We are shame-proof, my lord : and 'tis some policy To have one show worse than the king's and his company. King. I say they shall not come. Prin. Nay, my good lord, let me o'errule you now : That sport best pleases that doth least know how : Where zeal strives to content, and the contents Dies in the zeal of that which it presents : Their form confounded make most form in mirth, When great things labouring perish in theirbirth. 520 Biron. A right description of our sport, my lord. Enter Armado. Arm. Anointed, I implore so much expense of thy royal sweet breath as will utter a brace of words. [Converses apart zvith the King, and delivers him a paper. Prin. Doth this man serve God? Biron. Why ask you? Prin. He speaks not like a man of God's making. Arm. That is all one, my fair, sweet, honey monarch ; for, I protest, the schoolmaster is exceeding fantastical; to® too vain, too too vain: but we 530 104 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. will put it, as they say,, to fortuna de la guerra. I wish you the peace of mind, most royal couple- ment ! [Exit, King. Here is like to be a good presence of Worthies. He presents Hector of Troy ; the swain, Pompey the Great; the parish curate, Alexander; Armado's page, Hercules ; the pedant, Judas Maccabseus : And if these four Worthies in their first show thrive. These four will change habits, and present the other five. 540 Biron. There is five in the first show. King. You are deceived ; 'tis not so. Biron. The pedant, the braggart, the hedge-priest, the fool and the boy : — Abate throw at novum, and the whole world again Cannot pick out five such, take each one in his vein. King. The ship is under sail, and here she comes amain. Enter Costard, for Pompey. Cost. I Pompey am, — Boyet. You lie, you are not he. Cost. I Pompey am, — Boyet. With libbard's head on knee. Biron. Well said, old mocker : I must needs be friends with thee. 550 Cost. I Pompey am, Pompey surnamed the Big, — Diun. The Great. Cost. It is, ' Great,' sir : — Pompey surnamed the Great ; That oft in field, with targe and shield, did make my foe to sweat : 105 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST And travelling along this coast, I here am come by chance, And lay my arms before the legs of this sweet lass of France. If your ladyship would say, ' Thanks, Pompey,' I had done. Frin. Great thanks, Great Pompey. Cost. 'Tis not so much worth ; but I hope I was per- fect : I made a little fault in ' Great.' 560 Biron. My hat to a halfpenny, Pompey proves the best Worthy. Enter Sir Nathaniel, for Alexander. Nath. When in the world I lived, I was the world's commander ; By east, west, north, and south, I spread my con- quering might : My scutcheon plain declares that I am Alisander, — Boyet. Your nose says, no, you are not ; for it stands too right. Biron. Your nose smells ' no ' in this, most tender-smell- ing knight. Prin. The conqueror is dismay'd. Proceed, good Alex- ander. Nath. When in the w^orld I lived, I was the world's commander, — Boyet. Alost true, 'tis right ; you were so, Alisander. 570 Biron. Pompey the Great, — Cost. Your servant, and Costard. Biron. Take away the conqueror, take away Alis- ander. Cost. [To Sir Nath.] O, sir, you have overthrown 106 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Alisander the conqueror! You will be scraped out of the painted cloth for this: your Hon, that holds his poll-axe sitting on a close-stool, will be given to Ajax: he will be the ninth Worthy. A conqueror, and afeard to speak! 580 run away for shame, Alisander. [Nath. retires . There, an 't shall please you; a fooUsh mild man ; an honest man, look you, and soon dashed. He is a marvellous good neighbour, faith, and a very good bowler : but, for Alisander, — alas, you see how 'tis, — a little o'erparted. But there are Worthies a-coming will speak their mind in some other sort. Frill. Stand aside, good Pompey. Enter Holof ernes, for Judas; and Moth, for Hercides. Hoi Great Hercules is presented by this imp, 590 Whose club kill'd Cerberus, that three-headed canis ; And when he was a babe, a child, a shrimp. Thus did he strangle serpents in his manus. Quoniam he seemeth in minority. Ergo I come with this apology. Keep some state in thy exit,and vanish. [Moth retires. Judas I am, — Dum. A Judas ! HoL Not Iscariot, sir. Judas I am, ycliped Maccabaeus. 600 Dum. Judas Maccabseus dipt is plain Judas. Biron. A kissing traitor. How art thou proved Judas? Hoi. Judas I am, — Dim. The more shame for you, Judas. Hoi. What mean you, sir ? 107 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Boyet. To make Judas hang himself. Hoi. Begin, sir; you are my elder. Biron. Well followed: Judas was hanged on an elder. Hoi. I will not be put out of countenance. Biron. Because thou hast no face. 6io Hoi. What is this? Boyet. A cittern-head. Dum. The head of a bodkin. Biron. A Death's face in a ring. Long. The face of an old Roman coin, scarce seen. Boyet. The pommel of Caesar's falchion. Dum. The carved bone-face on a flask. Biron. Saint George's half-cheek in a brooch. Dum. Ay, and in a brooch of lead. Biron. Ay, and worn in the cap of a tooth-drawer. 620 And now forward; for we have put thee in coun- tenance. Hoi. You have put me out of countenance. Biron. False : we have given thee faces. Hoi. But you have out-faced them all. Biron. An thou wert a lion, we would do so. Boyet. Therefore, as he is an ass, let him go. And so adieu, sweet Jude ! nay, why dost thou stay ? Dum. For the latter end of his name. Biron. For the ass to the Jude; give it him: — Jud-as, away! Hoi. This is not generous, not gentle, not humble. 630 Boyet. A light for Monsieur Judas! it grows dark, he may stumble. [Hoi. retires. Prin. Alas, poor Maccabaeus, how hath he been baited I Enter Armado, for Hector. Biron. Hide thy head, Achilles : here comes Hector in arms. 108 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Dum. Though my mccks come home by me, I will now be merry. King, Hector was but a Troyan in respect of this. Boyet. But is this Hector? King. I think Hector was not so clean-timbered. Long. His leg is too big for Hector's. Dum. More calf, certain. 640 Boyet. No; he is best indued in the small. Biron. This cannot be Hector. Dum. He 's a god or a painter ; for he makes faces. Arm. The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty. Gave Hector a gift, — Dum. A gilt nutmeg. Biron. A lemon. Long. Stuck with cloves. Dum. No, cloven. Arm. Peace! — 650 The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty. Gave Hector a gift, the heir of Ilion ; A man so breathed, that certain he would fight ye. From morn till night, out of his pavilion. I am that flower, — Dum. That mint. Long. That columbine. Arm. Sweet Lord Longaville, rein thy tongue. Long. I must rather give it the rein, for it runs against Hector. Dum. Ay, and Hector 's a greyhound. Arm. The sweet war-man is dead and rotten ; sweet chucks, beat not the bones of the buried : when 660 he breathed, he was a man. But I will forward with my device. [To the Princess] Sweet roy- alty, bestow on me the sense of hearing. 109 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Prin. Speak, brave Hector : we are much delighted. Arm. I do adore thy sweet grace's sUpper. Boyet. [Aside to Dumain] Loves her by the foot. Dum. [Aside to Boyet] He may not by the yard. Arm. This Hector far surmounted Hannibal, — 670 Cost. The party is gone, fellow Hector, she is gone ; she is two months on her way. Arm. What meanest thou ? Cost. Faith, unless you play the honest Troyan, the poor wench is cast away : she 's quick ; the child brags in her belly already : 'tis yours. Arm. Dost thou infamonize me among potentates? thou shalt die. Cost. Then shall Hector be whipped for Jaquenetta that is quick by him, and hanged for Pompey 6S0 that is dead by him. Dum. Most rare Pompey! Boyet. Renowned Pompey! Biron. Greater than great, great, great, great Pompey ! Pompey the Huge ! Dum. Hector trembles. Biron. Pompey is moved. More Ates, more Ates! stir them on ! stir them on ! Dum. Hector will challenge him. Biron. Ay, if a' have no more man's blood in 's belly 690 than will sup a flea. Arm. By the north pole, I do challenge thee. Cost. I will not fight w^ith a pole, like a northern man : I '11 slash ; I '11 do it by the sword. I bepray you, let me borrow my arms again. no LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Dum. Room for the Incensed Worthies! Cost. I '11 do it in my shirt. Dum. Most resolute Pompey ! Moth. Master, let me take you a button-hole lower. Do you not see Pompey is uncasing for the 700 combat? What mean you? You will lose your reputation. Arm. Gentlemen and soldiers, pardon me; I will not combat in my shirt. Dum. You may not deny it : Pompey hath made the challenge. Arm. Sweet bloods, I both may and will. Biron. What reason have you for 't? Arm. The naked truth of it is, I have no shirt ; I go wool ward for penance. 710 Boyet. True, and it was enjoined him in Rome for want of linen : since when, I '11 be sworn, he wore none but a dish-clout of Jaque- netta's, and that a' wears next his heart for a favour. Enter Mercade. Mer. God save you, madam ! Prin. Welcome, Mercade; But that thou interrupt'st our merriment. Mer. I am sorry, madam ; for the news I bring Is heavy in my tongue. The king your father — 720 Prin. Dead, for my life! Mer. Even so ; my tale is told. Biron. Worthies, away ! the scene begins to cloud. Arm. For mine own part, I breathe free breath. I have seen the day of wrong through the little III Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier. [Exeunt Worthies. King. How fares your majesty? Prin, Boyet, prepare ; I will away to-night. King. Madam, not so; I do beseech you, stay. 730 Prin. Prepare, I say. I thank you, gracious lords, For all your fair endeavours ; and entreat. Out of a new-sad soul, that you vouchsafe In your rich wisdom to excuse, or hide, The liberal opposition of our spirits. If over-boldly we have borne ourselves In the converse of breath : your gentleness Was guilty of it. Fareweh, worthy lord ! A heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue : Excuse me so, coming too short of thanks 740 For my great suit so easily obtain' d. King. The extreme parts of time extremely forms All causes to the purpose of his speed ; And often, at his very loose, decides That which long process could not arbitrate : And though the mourning brow of progeny Forbid the smiling courtesy of love The holy suit which fain it would convince ; Yet, since love's argument was first on foot, Let not the cloud of sorrow justle it 750 From what it purposed ; since, to wail friends lost Is not by much so wholesome-profitable As to rejoice at friends but newly found. Prin. 1 understand you not : my griefs are double. Biron. Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief ; And by these badges understand the king. For your fair sakes have we neglected time, 112 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Play'd foul with our oaths : your beauty, ladies, Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our humours Even to the opposed end of our intents : 760 And what in us hath seem'd ridiculous, — As love is full of unbefitting strains ; All wanton as a child, skipping, and vain; Form'd by the eye, and therefore, hke the eye, Full of strange shapes, of habits and of forms. Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll To every viried object in his glance: Which parti-coated presence of loose love Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes, Have misbecomed our oaths and gravities, 770 Those heavenly eyes, that look into these faults. Suggested us to make. Therefore, ladies. Our love being yours, the error that love makes Is likewise yours: we to ourselves prove false. By being once false for ever to be true To those that make us both, — fair ladies, you: And even that falsehood, in itself a sin, Thus purifies itself, and turns to grace. Prin. We have received your letters full of love; Your favours, the ambassadors of love; y^o And, in our maiden council, rated them At courtship, pleasant jest and courtesy, As bombast and as lining to the time: But more devout than this in our respects Have we not been; and therefore met your loves In their own fashion, Hke a merriment. Dwn. Our letters, madam, showM much more than jest. Lojig. So did our looks. Ros. We did not quote them so. 113 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR S LOST King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour, Grant us your loves. 790 Prin. A time, methinks, too short To make a world-without-end bargain in. No, no, my lord, your grace is perjured much. Full of dear guiltiness; and therefore this: — If for my love, as there is no such cause. You will do aught, this shall you do for me : Your oath I will not trust ; but go with speed To some forlorn and naked hermitage. Remote from all the pleasures of the world; There stay until the twelve celestial signs 800 Have brought about the annual reckoning. If this austere insociable life Change not your offer made in heat of blood; If frosts and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love, But that it bear this trial, and last love; Then, at the expiration of the year. Come challenge me, challenge me by these deserts, And, by this virgin palm now kissing thine, I will be thine; and till that instant shut 810 My woeful self up in a mourning house. Raining the tears of lamentation For the remembrance of my father's death. If this thou do deny, let our hands part. Neither intitled in the other's heart. King. If this, or more than this, I would deny. To flatter up these powers of mine with rest, The sudden hand of death close up mine eye! Hence ever then my heart is in thy breast. Biron. And what to me, my love? and what to me? 820 114 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Ros. You must be purged too, your sins are rack'd, You are attaint with faults and perjury: Therefore if you my favour mean to get, A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest, But seek the weary beds of people sick. Diim. But what to me, my love? but what to me? A wife? Kath. A beard, fair health, and honesty ; With three-fold love I wish you all these three. Dum. O, shall I say, I thank you, gentle wife ? Kath. Not so, my lord ; a twelvemonth and a day 830 I '11 mark no words that smooth-faced wooers say : Come when the king doth to my lady come ; Then, if I have much love, I '11 give you some. Dum. I '11 serve thee true and faithfully till then. Kath. Yet swear not, lest ye be forsworn again. Long. What says Maria? Mar. At the twelvemonth's end I '11 change my black gown for a faithful friend. Long. I '11 stay with patience : but the time is long. Mar. The liker you ; few taller are so young. Biron. Studies my lady? mistress, look on me; 840 Behold the window of my heart, mine eye, What humble suit attends thy answer there : Impose some service on me for thy love. Ros. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Biron, Before I saw you ; and the world's large tongue Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks, Full of comparisons and wounding flouts. Which you on all estates will execute That lie within the mercy of your wit. To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain, 850 115 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST And therewithal to win me, if you please, Without the which I am not to be won, You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day Visit the speechless sick, and still converse With groaning wretches ; and your task shall be, With all the fierce endeavour of your wit To enforce the pained impotent to smile. Biron. To move wild laughter in the throat of death ? It cannot be ; it is impossible : Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. 860 Ros. Why, that 's the way to choke a gibing spirit. Whose influence is begot of that loose grace Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools : A jest's prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Of him that makes it : then, if sickly ears, Deaf'd with the clamours of their own dear groans. Will hear your idle scorns, continue then. And I will have you and that fault withal; But if they will not, throw away that spirit, 870 And I shall find you empty of that fault. Right joyful of your reformation. Biron. A twelvemonth ! well ; befall what will befall, I '11 jest a twelvemonth in an hospital. Prin. [To the King] Ay, sweet my lord; and so I take my leave. King. No, madam ; we will bring you on your way. Biron. Our wooing doth not end like an old play ; Jack hath not Jill : these ladies' courtesy Might well have made our sport a comedy. King. Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day, 880 And then 'twill end. 116 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Act V. Sc. ii. Biron. That 's too long for a play. Re-enter Armado. Arm. Sweet majesty, vouchsafe me, — Prin. Was not that Hector? Dum. The worthy knight of Troy. Arm. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave. I am a votary; I have vowed to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three years. But, most esteemed greatness, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have com- piled in praise of the owl and the cuckoo? it 890 should have followed in the end of our show. King. Call them forth quickly; we will do so. Arm. Holla! approach. Re-enter Holof ernes, Nathaniel, Moth, Costard, and others. This side is Hiems, Winter, this Ver, the Spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo. Ver, begin. The Song. Spring. When daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks all silver-white And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight, 900 The cuckoo then, on every tree, Mocks married men ; for thus sings he. Cuckoo ; Cuckoo, cuckoo : O word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear ! 117 Act V. Sc. ii. LOVE'S. LABOUR 'S LOST When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks, • When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws, And maidens bleach their summer smocks. The cuckoo then, on every tree, 910 Mocks married men ; for thus sings he. Cuckoo ; Cuckoo, cuckoo : O word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear ! Winter. AVhen icicles hang by the wall. And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And Tom bears logs into the hall. And milk comes frozen home in pail. When blood is nipp'd and ways be foul, Then nightly sings the staring owl, 920 Tu-whit ; Tu-who, a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. When all aloud the wind doth blow. And coughing drowns the parson's saw, And birds sit brooding in the snow, And Marian's nose looks red and raw. When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl. Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-whit ; 930 Tu-who, a merry note. While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. Arm. The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo. You that way, — we this way. [Exeunt. 118 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Glossary. /4^he; V. li. 13. Abate, deduct, leave out, ex cept, vide Novum ; V. ii. 545. iA'cadenie, Academy; I. i. 13. l^ddress'd, prepared; II. i. S3.X Affection, affectation; V. i. 4. i^ffect, adore; I. ii. 166. Affect the letter, use allitera- tion; IV. ii. 56. K.^ffects, affections, inclinations; I. i. 152. Ajax; probably used with a play upon a fakes, a well- knoAvn coarse joke of the time; V. ii. 579. All hid, the children's cry in the game of " hide and seek"; IV. iii. 77. Allow'd, privileged (as a fool); V. ii. 478. iAn if, if (emphatic) ; I. i. 50. Annothanize (so Folio i and Quartos ; the other Folios, "anatomize"), probably Ar- mado's rendering of "anato- mize " ; IV. i. 68. Antique, antic; V. ^. 113. Apple of her eye; " upon the a." = " in obedience to her glance " ; V. ii. 475. \^Art, science; "living art." i.e. " immortal science " ; I. i. 14. Ates, mischiefs, instigations (Ate, the goddess of mis-^ chief that incited to blood- - shed) ; V. ii. 687. Bandied; vide Set. '^'^argain; "to sell a bargain" seems to have consisted in drawing a person in by some stratagem to proclaim him- self a fool ; III. i. loi. case, mean, mere ; I. i. 87. vBate, blunt; I. i. 6. Beg; "you cannot beg us," i.e. you cannot prove us to be idiots and apply to be our guardians ; you cannot beg the wardship of our persons and property; V. ii. 490. Ben venuto, welcome (Ital- ian) ; IV. ii. 160. Beshrew, a mild form of im- precation ; V. ii. 46. Retime, betide, chance ; IV. iii. 381. Bias, preponderant tendency (originally a term in bowl- ing) ; IV. ii. 112. Bird-bolt, a short thick arrow with a broad flat end, used to kill birds without pier- cing; IV. iii. 22. Blood; " in blood," used tech- nically in the sense of " in full vigour " ; IV. ii. 3. l-r^trfJ of, confident in; II. i. 28. Bombast, padding (cotton used to stuff out garments) ; V. i. 783. rawl, a kind of dance, " wherein many (men and 119 Glossary LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST In B flat. 9 10 11 12 a b c A Brawl, (From Naylor's Shakespeare and Musie.) women) holding by the hands, sometimes in a ring, and otherwhiles at length, move all together " ; III. i. 9. (See the accompanying ex- ample.) Breathed, endowed with breath, vigorous ; V. ii. 653. Button-hole; " let me take you a b. lower," i.e. " let me speak without ceremony " ; V. ii. 699. ^ Butt-shaft, a kind of arrow used for shooting at hutts, or targets ; I. ii. 175. Can, did ; an old corruption of " gan " {cp. the version printed in the Passionate Pil- grim), with which word it was frequently confused ; IV. iii. 105. anary, to dance the canary, a fantastic savage dance, said \A to have been brought from the Canary Islands ; III. i. 12. (See Specimen.) Capon, used like poulet in French for a love-letter ; " break up this capon," i.e. " open this letter ; IV. i. 56. Career, encounter of knights at full gallop; V. ii. 482. Carve, to show amorous cour- tesy; V, ii. 2)^2)- Caudle, a warm drink of gruel with wine and spice added, often given to the sick; IV. ^Cause, used in the technical sense of " cause of quarrel "; I ii. 178. l/Cliapmen, sellers; II. i. i6."3^ Charge-house, a school-house, not found elsewhere ; printed " charg-house " in Fol. i and Q. I ; perhaps ^ " church- house " as pronounced by 8 9 TO II 12 A Canary. (From Naylor's Shakespeare and Music.) 120 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Glossary Armado : " charter-house," " large-house," etc., have been suggested; V. i. 82. Chose, choice, well-chosen ; V. i. 92. Chuck, a term of endearment ; V. i. III. Circum circa (Quartos and Fo- lios " unum cita," emended by Theobald), round and round; V. i. 68. Cittern-head; "the cittern had usually a head grotesquely carved at the extremity of the neck and finger-board " ; V. ii. 612. (See Illustration at end of Glossary.) Clazvs, scratches in a pleasing manner, humours, flatters ; IV. ii. 65. Clean timbered, well-made, faultlessly shaped ; V. ii. 638. Clout, the white mark at which archers took their aim ; IV. i. 136. Cockled, enclosed in a shell ; IV. iii. 337. L^^odpiece, part of the male dress of the period ; III. i. 185. Cog, deceive ; V. ii. 235. Colourable colours, specious pretexts; IV. ii. 152. [/^Common sense, ordinary sight, or perception ; I. i. 57, 64. ^""Competitors, associates; II. i. 82. H- ^ Complements, accomplishments, probably with the idea of " formal accomplishments," " external shows " ; I. i. 169. ''''Complexion, temperament, dis- position (used quibblingly) ; I. ii. 81. Compliment, formality ; IV. ii. , /1 46. ^^onceit's, thought's; II. i. 72. ><" ^oncolinel, probably the begin- ning or burden of a song; III. i. 3. Consent, compact; V. ii. 460. ^--Contempts =^ conitnis,; I. i. 191. Converse of breath, conversa- tion ; V. ii. 737. Convince, overcome; V. ii. 748. u&ormorant, ravenous; I. i. 4. Corner-cap, the biretta, or three-cornered cap of a Ro- man Catholic priest ; IV. iii. f^orporal of the field, an officer similar to our aide-de-camp ; III. i. 188. Couplement, couple (used by Armado) ; V. ii. 532. Coursing, chasing; IV. iii. i. -Courtesy, curtsy; I. ii. 62. Crabs, crab-apples ; V. ii. 928. Crack, boast ; IV. iii. 267. Crest, badge ; " beauty's crest becomes the heavens well " (i.e. the brightness which is the badge of beauty) ; IV. iii. Clitic, carper; III. i. 177. / Critic, cynical ; " critic Timon," the misanthrope par excel- lence ; IV. iii. 169. '•^Crosses, used quibblingly in the sense of money ; many old coins were marked with a cross on one side; I. ii. 33. 121 Glossary LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Cuckoo-buds, probably the but- tercup, or the bud of the cowslip ; the name is now given to the meadow cress ; V. ii. 899- l^urious-knotted, elaborately laid out in knots, intricately- devised beds in which flowers were planted; I. i. 249. Curst, shrewish ; IV. i. 36. i^--^ancing-horse; an allusion to a famous performing horse often alluded to by contem- porary writers as " Bankes' horse," and here illustrated; he is said to have gone up to the top of St. Paul's in 1600 (cp. Chambers's Book of Days) ; I. ii. 52. From " Maroccus Extaticus or Bankes' Bay Horse in a Trance " (i595). i/ Day-woman, dairy-woman ; I. ./ ii. 132. ^ Dazzling, being dazzled ; " who dazzling so." i.e. " that when he has his eye made weak" (by fixing it upon a fairer eye) ; I. i. 82. Dear, used intensitively (" dear groans ") ; V. ii. 867. jl'^earest, best; II. i. i./< \^ebate, contest; I. i. 174. ^^epart, to part; II. i. 147.7^ Dictynna (Dictisima, Dictissi- ma, Dictima, in Folios and Quartos), one of the names of Diana; IV. ii. 2>7, 38. digression, transgression ; I. ii. 115- l^isgrace, disfigurement ; I. i. 3. ^^.Sfsposed, inclined to be some- what wantonly merry; II. i. 250. 7^ Dominical, the red letter which in old almanacs denotes the Lord's day ; " red d. my golden letter " referring to the fashionable colour of Katherine's hair; V. ii. 44. Doubt; " made a d." = " ex- pressed a fear"; V. ii. loi , Dry-beaten, cudgelled; V. ii. 263. ^Epitheton, epithet (used by Ar- mado) ; I. ii. 14. ^xtemporal, unpremeditated; I. ii. 183. Fadge, turn out well ; V. i. 148. Fair, beauty; IV. i. 17. Fairings, presents (originally the nick-nacks bought at fairs) ; V. ii. 2. vFamiliar, familiar spirit, de- mon ; I. ii. 171. Fasting, hungry; IV. iii. 121. l/'Favour, leave, pardon; III. i. ^ 68. 122 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Glossary Favour, a present, token of love; V. ii. 30; with a quib- ble on " favour " = " face " ; V. ii. 2>?>- i^^estinately, quickly ; III. i. 6. Fierce, ardent ; V. ii. 857. Filed, polished; V. i. 12. ^—Fire-new, brand-new; I. i. 179. J^^tted, equipped ; II. i. 45. X Flap-dragon, a small substance set on fire and put afloat in a glass of liquor, to be swal- lowed flaming; V. i. 43. F/flky^, a powder-flask; V.ii.617. Fleer' d, laughed ; V. ii. 109. Force, to care ; V. ii. 440. L^orm, bench, used quibblingly; I. i. 209. Fortuna de la guerra (Span- ish), fortune of war (used hjt-Armado) ; V. ii. 531. \y^Trame, order ; III. i. 192. Gallows, used playfully for a mischievous knave {cp. wag = wag-halter) ; V. ii. 12. l^elded, maimed; II. i. 149. >^ l^entility, good manners (Theo- bald conjectured "garru- lity") I. i. 129. Get the Sun; in the days of archery it was an advantage to get the sun at the back of the bowmen, and in the face of the enemy; IV. iii. 368. Gig, a kind of top ; IV. iii. 166. (Cp. illustration.) Glozes, sophistries; IV. iii. 369. God dig-you-den, i.e. " God give you good evening " ; IV. i. 42. Greasily, grossly ; IV. i. 139. From the MS. of the Remand' Alexan- dre in the Bodleian Library. Guards, trimmings, ornaments ; IV. iii. 57. Half-cheek, profile ; V. ii. 618. Hands; " of all hands " any case " ; IV. \'^'fat penthouse- tike; III. i. 17. (C p. Pent- houselike.) Hay, an old coun- try-dance ; V. i. 156. Head; " a buck of • the first head" = "a buck of the fifth year " ; IV. ii. 10. i^Heed, protection, lodestar; I. i. 82. \/kereby, used by Jaquenetta in the sense of " as it may hap- pen"; Armado takes it to mean " close by " ; I. ii. 135. Hid, vide "All hid." LMight, is called; I. i. 171. Hind, boor, peasant (with a quibble on " hind," the beast ; hence " rational hind ") ; I. ii. 117. From an illus- tration in the " M u sarum Delicise." 123 Glossary Hohhy-horse, one of the prin- cipal characters in the old Morris-dance, but growing out of use after the Reforma- tion ; " The hobby-horse is LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST forgot " was a well-known quotation from some popular ballad ("But O," or "For O," preceded; cp. Hamlet, III. ii. 142) ; III. i. 30. From an early painting in the Fitzwilliam Muesum, Cambridge. (Note tne familiar tabor and pipe.) X\\ efs9(;Umn^ f)iais&a rA .% !l „ _ . tl '<& U ^ 1^ jlbtaat eeloi ain <* «^ Mi» W * . _ .. „ „ -l be/Atijerfln^of in^Tf ^albcr tobitb artmlSEa iP^bea .ballotncb be thvYftacir SbyWnaooiae tome. .S^by toiU £ , , done in Cartb a* it 12 in1|&eAt ea fibe u^ tbis 6a;> oure)ail;jbr?^ na fo?tti^c u« our treFpaffreecc? .forgibe tbfra tbattrcBpaffeagedtifl U8an6lfadu2 not into tcmo* From a specimen {temf. Charles I.) in the Bateman Museum. 124 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Glossary Home, a home thrust ; V. i. 59. HonoriUcabilitudinitatibiis, a word often cited as a typical long word; V. i. 42. Horn-hook, leaf of paper con- taining alphabet, etc., pro- tected by a thin layer of horn S^—flfques (dissyllabic, here and elsewhere in Shakespeare) ; II. i. 42. X. \^^an, common designation for a peasant girl ; III. i. 206. Judas was hang'd on an elder ; V. ii. 608. (See illustration.) From an early black-letter edition of Maundevile's Travec. L'-'^Haii or other transparent sub- stance ; applied also to an a & c tablet without horn ; V. i.46. See illustration opposite.) umorous, capricious; III. i. 176. Imp, youngster; V. ii. 590. Incision, blood-letting; IV. iii. 96. ^ — 'fncony, nice, smart ; III. i. 135. ^px'Hi^e, tape ; III. i. 139. Insanie (Folios and Quartos, infamie), insanity, madness; V. i. 126. Intellect, signature ; IV. ii. 136. Inward, confidential ; V. i. 96. If^It, used with general reference to a plural substantive pre- ceding; I. i. 23. Juvenal, juvenile, youth (used by Armado) ; I. ii. 8. Keel, to cool by stirring, or perhaps to scum the pot in order to keep it from boiling over; V. ii. 923. Kersey, a coarse woollen stuflf; V. ii. 413. Kingly-poor (not hyphened in Folios and Quartos); " K. flout " = ( ?) " poor mockery of a king," or " poor mock- ery given with the airs of royalty" ("poor-liking." "poor kingly," have been suggested) ; V. ii. 269. Lady-smocks, probably the flowers of the Cardamine 125 Glossary LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Pratensis, so called from the V^Ianner, a law term (= main- resemblance of its flowers to little smocks hung out to dry; or perhaps the name is a corruption of " Our Lady's smock " ; V. ii. 898. Lances, lancers; V. ii. 644. Last, continue, remain, " 1. love," i.e. " continue to be love"; V. ii. 806. l^yL'envoy, often used at this period with the article or pronoun prefixed, hence "thy I'envoy"; III. i. y2>- Libbard's, leopard's ; V. ii. 549. \.yLie, lodge; I. i. 149. Liver-vein, the style and man- ner of men in love; IV. iii. 72- lyj^ong of, owing to; II. i. 119.Y- Loose, losing of the shaft ; V. ^^ ii. 744- " Lord have mercy on us," the inscription put upon the doors of houses infected with the plague ; V. ii. 419. Loves, affects ; IV. iii. 357. ^"^lagniUcenf, pompous ; III. i. 179. J^Iail, bag (the Quartos and Folio I read : " in the male " ; Tyrwhitt's ingenious emen- dation " in them all " has been adopted by many edi- tors) ; III. i. 74. Malmsey, a kind of sweet wine ; V. ii. 2SS- Manage, government, training (of horses) ; V. ii. 482. Manager, one who wields arms ; I. ii. 182. A our) ; " taken with the m.," i.e. " taken with the thing stolen upon him"; I i. 205. Mantuan, Giovanni Battista Spagnoli, named Mantuanus, was the author of certain ec- logues written in Latin, which were read in schools; Holofernes quotes the first line of the first eclogue ; IV. Ji. 96. ^argent, margin (an allusion to the custom of writing notes in the margin of books) ; II. i. 246. y^ ^larket; " he ended ^e mar- ket," alluding to the proverb, " three women and a goose make a market"; III. i. no. Mean, tenor; V. ii. 328. Measure, a stately dance; V. ii. yi87. ^^ere, absolute ; I. i. 149. Mess, a set of four ; " at great dinners the company was usually arranged into fours "; IV. iii. 206. Mete at, to measure with the eye in aiming, to aim at ; IV. i. 134- Metheglin, a drink made of honey and water fermented; V. ii. 233. Minstrelsy, the office of a min- strel ; I. i. 177. Misprision, misapprehension ; IV. iii. 97. Monarcho, the name of a fan- tastic Italian resident in Lon- don ; often alluded to by con- temporary writers ; IV. i. loi. 126 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Glossary ^"'^ative, produced by nature ; I. ii. 105. L^-^ew-f angled, delighting in novelty; I. i. 106. Nice, coy; V. ii. 219. Nit, applied to anything very small; IV. i. 150. No\'i hominem, etc. ("I know the man as well I do you"), a well-known sentence in the Latin phrase-books; V. i. 10. Novum, a game at dice, " prop- erly called novum quinque, from the two principal throws of the dice, nine and five " ; " abate throw at n." = "except in a throw at novum the whole world could not furnish five such " ; V. ii. 545. O'erparted, overweighted in his part, or role ; V. ii. 586. 10J, during; I. i. 43. Opinion, self-conceit; V. i. 6. O's, the marks left by the small-pox; V. ii. 45. Parcel, company, party; V. ii. 160. LyTaritors, apparitors, i.e. in- ferior officers of the bishop's court, whose duty it was to serve citations ; III. i. 187. Parle, parley; V. ii. 122. l/^Passado, thrust in fencing ; I. ii. 179- l^Ptlssion, grieve ; I. i. 263. Passion's, sorrows; V. ii. 118. Patch, used with a quibble on " patch " in the sense of fool ; IV. ii. 32. Pathetical, seemingly used by Armado and Costard in the sense of "pleasing in a high degree," " touching " ;>^^. ii. 97; IV. i. 150. i—PfdxLnt, pedagogue; III. i. 178. ly^Penance, misused by Dull; I. ii. 128. Pencils, small brushes used by painters to lay on colour ; " ware pencils " =: " beware of pencils," i.e. " of drawing likenesses " ; V. ii. 43. *^nthouse-like, hanging over like a penthouse, a porch with a sloping roof; III. i. 17. {Cp. Hat penthouse- like.) Peremptory, unawed, bold ; IV. iii. 225. P e r j u r e, perjurer (perjurers were obliged to wear papers on their breasts describing their offence) ; IV. iii. 47. Perttaunt-like, vide Note. Phantasime, a fantastic; IV. i. lOI. Pia mater, the membrane which covers the brain, used for the brain itself; IV. ii. 71. Picked, over-refined; V. i. 14. Pied, variegated; V. ii. 897. Pin, the wooden pin that up- held the clout ; IV. i. 138. Pitched a toil, set a net; IV. iii. 2. tPfackets, stomachers, or petti- coats, or some portion of fe- male attire; III. i. 185. Please-man, pickthank; V. ii. J463- yPoint, suggest; II. i. 245. y(, 127 Glossary LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST \/^Point, used with a quibble on the French negative particle; II. i. 190. \ Point-devise, over exact, pre- cise ; V. i. 19. Pole, the long quarter-staff, in the use of which the north- erners were skilful ; V. ii. 693. Pomewater, a kind of apple; IV. ii. 4- Present, document to be pre- sented; IV. iii. 188. Pricket, a buck of the second year; IV. ii. 12. ^yPrint; " in p.," i.e. " accurate- ly"; III. i. 172. Priscian; " P. a little scratch- ed," alluding to the common phrase diminuas Prisciani caput, applied to such as speak false Latin ; V. i. 29. Prisons up (Folios and Quar- tos, "poisons up"), confines; " up " used as an intensive particle ; IV. iii. 304. l^^roceeded, used with a play upon " proceed " as an aca- demical sense, i.e. *' to take a degree " ; I. i. 95. Pruning, adorning ; IV. iii. 182. Push-pin, a child's game in which pins are pushed alter- nately; IV. iii. 168. Qualm, probably used with a play upon " calm " ; V. ii. 279. Quillets, casuistries; IV. iii. 287. Quote, regard; V. ii. 788. Raught, reached; IV. ii. 41. Reasons, arguments ; V. i. 2. Remember; " r. thy courtesy," a common phrase of the time, bidding a person who had courteously taken off his hat to put it on again ; V. i. 97. Repasture, repast, food ; IV. i. ^.^solve, answer; II. i. no. p- Respects, considerations ; V. ii. ^784. , l^hetoric, II. i. 229>f^ Russet, homespun (commonly of russet colour) ; V. ii. 413. Saint Denis, the patron saint of -ance; V. ii. 87. )aiz'e, ointment; III. i. 73; used perhaps with a quibble on Latin salve, a word of greeting, and sometimes also a parting salutation; III. i. 82. Satis quod sufUcit, " enough 's as good as a feast"; V. i. i. Saw, maxim ; V. ii. 925. S elf -sovereignty ; "not a sov- ereignty over, but in, them- selves " ; or perhaps one should read " that self-sover- eignty," i.e. "that self-same s." ; iv. i. z6. Set, i.e. a set at tennis ; " to bandy" {cp. "well-bandied both") ^ to send the ball to I and fro ; V. ii. 29. ^Several (used quibblingly) r= an enclosed field, the private property of an individual, as opposed to a common, which was used by the public gen- erally; II. i. 223. ^ 128 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Glossary Shapeless, unshapely, ugly; V. ii. 303- Shrewd, mischievous ; V. ii. 12. Shrows, shrews ; V. ii. 46. I^^^Sigmfica7tt, symbol (used by • Armado) ; III. i. 130. Simplicity, silliness ; V. ii. 78. i^it out, not to take part (an expression derived from the card-table) ; I. i. no. Skipping, frivolous, flighty; V. ii. 763. Slop (the Quartos and Folios, " shop," corrected by Theo- bald), usually used only in the plural = large loose trousers; IV. iii. 58. Small, the small of the leg; V. ii. 641. \^^neaping, snipping; I. i. 100. Snuff, used equivocally for (i) the wick of a candle, and (2) a huff expressed by a snuffing of the nose, resentment ; " to take in snuff "= " to take of- y fence " ; V. ii. 22. vSolemnised ; II. i. 42.'V* Sore, a deer of the fourth year ; IV. ii. 59. Sorel, a deer of the third year ; IV. ii. 61. {Cp. illustration.) 'Ported, associated ; I. i. 260. Spleen, sudden impulse; fit of laughter ; V. ii. 117. Sqtiier, square, foot-rule ; " to know my lady's foot " = " to know her humours exactly " ; V. ii. 474- Stand, used technically for hunter's station ; IV. i. 10. Staple, thread, pile; V. i. 19. State, attitude ; IV. iii. 184. (goto vjig From a late MS. of the " Master of the Game," in the British Museum (Bibl. Reg. 17A.lv.). States, estates ; V. ii. 425. Statute-caps, woollen caps, which by Act of Parliament in 1571 were worn by the citizens of London on Sun- days and holidays; V. ii. 281. From Foxe's Ecclesiastical History (1576). Stoop, (?) crooked, or perhaps used as a substantive ; IV. iii. 88. Sue, used equivocally for (i) to prosecute, and (2) to beg, entreat ; V. ii. 427. Suggested, tempted; V. ii. 772. ^■Suggestions, temptations; I. i. 159. 129 Glossary LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Suitor, spelt " shooter " in the Folios and Quartos, for the sake of the quibble ; IV. i. no. Swound (spelt "sound" in old eds.), swoon; V. ii. 392. Taffeta, a rich, smooth stuff of silk (perhaps used for the ladies' masks) ; V. ii. 159. Talent, used quibblingly with a play upon "talon"; IV. ii. 65. Teen, grief; IV. iii. 164. iyfharborough = thirdborough y constable; I. i. 185. i^Thin-belly; " t. doublet," op- posed to " great-bellied doub- let," the lean belly being characteristic of a man in love; III. i. 19. Thrasonical, boastful (derived from the character of Thraso in Terence's Eunuchus) ; V. i. 13. Three-piled, superfine ; V. ii. 407. Tired, attired, clothed in trap- pings; IV. ii. 130. 1/To, compared to ; II. i. 62,)\. Toy, trifle ; IV. iii. 200. Trencher-knight, serving-man ; V. ii. 464. Treys, threes (as in dice and card-playing) ; V. ii. 232. Tritimviry, triumvirate ; IV. iii. 52. Troyan, Trojan (used often as a term of contempt) ; V. ii. \^/^umhler's hoop (cp. accom- panying illustration) ; III. i. 189. From a print by H. Cock (1565), after a design by Breughel. Turtles, turtle-doves ; IV. iii. 211. Tyburn, the usual place of exe- cution in London; ''the shape of Love's Tyburn," alluding to the triangular form of the gallows (here illustrated) ; IV. iii. 53- From an old black-letter ballad entitled "The Royall Subjects Warning-Piece to all Traytors." Unconfirmed, ignorant; IV. ii. 19. 130 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Glossary Unhappy, roguish; V. ii. 12, iJ^peeled (the reading of Q. i ; the Folios, "unpeopled"), stripped, desolate; II. i. 88.X Usurping, counterfeit, false ; IV. iii. 258. Vailing, letting fall ; V. ii. 297. Veal; used by way of punning as the pronunciation of " well " among Dutchmen {i.e. Germans) ; according to others the word alluded to is " Viel," in the phrase " zu viel " (too much), but this seems doubtful; the joke oc- curs elsewhere, with a play upon " well " ; V. ii. 247. Venue, a single hit ; a fencing term; V. i. 58. Via, an Italian adverb of en- couragement ; used here probably for di via {i.e. " say on," " speak out!") ; V.i. 150. L^-^olahle (Folios, Q. i, voluble), nimble-witted; III. i. 67. IWard, guard; III. i. 133. Ware, beware of; V. ii. 43. Wax, grow (with a quibble on "sealing-wax"), alluding to previous line; V. ii. 10. Week; " he were but in by the week," a cant phrase, prob- ably derived from the hiring of servants, =1 if I had him at my command ; if he were deep in love; V. ii. 61. Weigh, used equivocally for (i) to be equivalent to in weight, and (2) to care for; V. ii. 26, 27. Well advised, sane, in right mind; V. ii. 434. ]V hole's hone {i.e. whales bone), the tooth of the wal- r^XSr; V. ii. 332. iVhere, whereas ; II. i. 103. ^ LWIiifely (Quartos and early Folios, "whitly"), misspell- ing of " wightly," i.e. " wim- ble " (Rosaline was a bru- nette, and the strange epithet " whitely " seems inappro- priate) ; III. i. 197. UVunpled, blindfolded; III. i. 180. l^'ink, to shut the eyes ; I. i. 43. Wit-old, used with a quibble on " wittol " (^a cuckold); V. i. 62. Woodcocks, fools ; the wood- cock was supposed to have no brains, and hence became the emblem of stupidity; IV. iii. 81. Woohvard, with the wool next to the skin; V. ii. 710. Wort, a sweet, unfermented beer; V. ii. 233. Wreathed, folded; IV. iii. 134. Ycliped, yclept (introduced for a play upon "dipt") ; V. ii. 600. Years; " in years " = " into wrinkles " ; V. ii. 465. Zany, buffoon ; V. ii. 463. Zcnelophon (so the Folios or Quartos ; the name in the old ballad is " Penelophon," which is the form substituted here in many editions) ; IV. i.65. 131 Glossary LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST 'A Cittern head'; V, ii. 614. 'The head of a bodkin; 'A Death's face in a ring' ; ' The carved-hone face on a Hask.' {a) Cittern head, from Mersenne's Harmonie Universille (1636). \b) Bodkin, from a specimen found in a Roman cemetery at Mayence. c) Ring, from a specimen belonging to the late J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps. ) Flask, from a specimen belonging to M. Sauvageot (Paris). i5) 132 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Critical Notes. BY ISRAEL GOLLANCZ. There is no list of ' Dramatis Personae ' in the Quartos and Folios : it should be remembered that ' Biron ' is spelt ' Berowne,' rhyming with ' moon ' in Act IV. iii. 232 ; ' Moth ' was probably- pronounced 'Mote' (cp. the quibble on 'nothing' in Much Ado, II. iii. 59, and on ' Goths ' in As You Like It, III. iii. 9) ; ' Mer- cade ' is generally ' Marcade ' ; ' Armado ' is sometimes given as ' Armatho ' ; ' Boyet ' rhymes with ' debt ' in V. ii. 334 ; ' Longa- ville ' with ' ill ' in IV. iii. 123, and with ' mile ' in V. ii. 53. I. i. 62. 'feast'', Quartos and Folios, 'fast,' corrected byTheo- bald. I. i. 82. ' Who dazzling so' ', " that when he dazzles, that is, has his eye made weak, by fixing his eye upon a fairer eye, that fairer eye shall be his heed, his direction or lodestar, and give him light that was blinded by it " (Johnson). I. i. 104. 'Any abortive'', the reading of the Quartos and Fo- lios ; probably an error for ' an,' as corrected by Pope. I. i. 106. 'shows'', Theobald substituted 'earth' for the sake of the rhyme; Walker proposed 'mirth.' Malone supposes a line to be lost after line 104. I. i. 108-109. 'So you to study . . . little gate'', this is one of the instances where the reading of the first Quarto is better than that of the Folio : — 'So you to studie nozv it is too late, That were to clymbe ore the house to unlocke the gate.' Various emendations have been proposed; the only real difficulty is in the loose use of the word ' so.' Biron says that he likes of each thing that in season grows ; ' so ' presupposes, however, some statement to this effect ; ' to wish for, or to do, a thing out of season is huge folly ' ; so you, now that it is too late to study, climb o'er the house, etc. I. i. 185. ' Tharhorough' \ the reading of the Quarto, ' farbor- ough,' probably gives us Bull's actual pronunciation of his office. 133 Notes LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST I, i. 196. ' heaven' so Quartos and Folios. Theobald proposed ' having ' ; whatever may be the exact force of the phrase, it seems most probable that ' heaven ' is the right word, and no emendation is necessary. I. ii. 89. 'A green wit ' ; a probable allusion, according to the Cambridge editors, to the ' green withes ' with which Samson was bound {cp. note supra on pronunciation of * Moth '). I. ii. 109. The ballad of King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid may be found in Percy's Reliques. II. i. 45. 'Well £tted in arts'; the second Folio inserts 'the,' omitted in the earlier editions. II. i. 114-128. The speakers in Quarto i are ' Berowne ' and * Katharine.' II. i. 129. Shakespeare may have got a hint for this passage from Monstrelet's Chronicles, according to which Charles, King of Navarre, surrendered to the King of France the castle of Cher- bourg, the county of Evreux, and other lordships for the Duchy of Nemours and a promise of 200,000 gold crowns {vide Shake- speare's Library, ed. Hazlitt, Part I. Vol. i). II. i. 238. 'Impatient to speak and not see,' i.e. 'not able to endure merely the faculty of speech without that of sight.' III. i. 21. ' It was a common trick among some of the most indolent of the ancient masters to place the hands in the bosom or the pockets, or conceal them in some part of the drapery, to avoid the labour of representing them, or to disguise their own want of skill to employ them with grace and propriety' (Stee- vens). IV. i. 1-4. These lines, as Spedding pointed out, were most probably introduced in the corrected copy. " It was thus that Shakespeare learnt to shade off his scenes, to carry the action be- yond the stage." IV. i. 146. 'Armado o' th' one side ; the reading is due to Rowe; the first Quarto has ' Armatho ath toothen side,' and the Folio ' Armathor ath to the side.' Possibly the whole passage from ' O my troth . . . nit' should have been printed in the previous scene, after line 136, and some editors make the trans- position. IV. ii. 42. ' The allusion holds in the exchange' i.e. 'the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam as when I use the name of Cain.' IV. ii. 62. ' one sorel ' ; the first Quarto has ' sorell,' and the 134 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Notes Folios *" O sorell ' ; Capell proposed ' O sore L,' which is generally adopted. IV. ii. 98, 99. The first Quarto and Folio give the following reading : — ' Vemchie, vcnclia, que non te vnde, que non te perreche' ; the reading adopted by the Cambridge editors is from Florio's Second Frutes (1591), whence Shakespeare probably took it. IV. ii. 122. ' apostrophas ' ; this is taken by some editors to refer to the apostrophes in vow'd and bow'd (11. 109, 11 1), and the words are accordingly printed ' vowed ' and ' bowed ' ; this inter- pretation seems unsatisfactory, but so far nothing better has been advanced. Does not Holofernes' criticism bear directly on the last line of the canzonet? Nathaniel should have read: — *" That singes heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.' It was usual to mark cs with two dots when sounded: Holofernes may mean by ' apostrophas/ ' dicereses.' The poem is printed with a few variant readings (e.g. ' to sing') in the Passionate Pilgrim, where also are found 11. 59-72 and 11. 100- 119 of the next scene, also with some interesting points of difference. IV. iii. 15, 16. 'melancholy' ; it is noteworthy that Quartos and Folios real mallichollie ; this form may have been due to the author; it explains Mistress Quickly's allicholly. Mallicholly seems to be an authentic Middle English form of the word; it should perhaps be retained in the text.. IV. iii. 107. ' Wish,' so the Quartos and first Folio ; in the Pas- sionate Pilgrim 'wish'd'; similarly in line 112 'thorn' is due to the version printed in England's Helicon : the other editions read ' throne.' Rowe first proposed the change. IV. iii. 141. The second Folio omits one. Walker's suggestion ' One's ' makes the line rhythmic. IV, iii. 145. 'Faith infringed/ the reading of the Quartos and the Folio ; ' faith so infringed ' seems the most satisfactory emen- dation proposed. IV. iii. 165. ' a gnat/ perhaps alluding to the fact that it sings, as it flies. Biron refers probably to the King's sonnets. IV. iii. 175. 'men like you, men of inconstancy' ', S. Walker's conjecture; Folio i, Quarto 2: 'men, like men of inconstancy/ IV. iii. 247. "" wood ' ; Quartos and Folios read ' zvord/ IV, iii. 254. 'Suit of night'; the early editions, 'school'; ' scowl/ ' stole/ ' soul/ ' scroll/ ' seal/ ' shade/ have been proposed 135 Notes LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST by various scholars ; most probably, as the Cambridge editors sug- gest, 'school' is an error for ' shoote' i.e. suit, though they retain the former reading. IV. iii. 300. 'prisons'; Theobald's emendation of ' poysons.' Quartos and Folios. V. i. 29. In Quarto and Folio the line reads : — 'Borne boon for boon priscian, a little scratcht 'twil serve.' V. i. 127. Capell proposed 'or' for 'and'; the passage is evi- dently corrupt. V. ii. 6y. ' perttaunt-like' ; this word is the crux of the play; the early editions read 'perttaunt-like' and ' pertaunt-like.' Theobald reads 'pedant-like' and other editors suggest 'portent-like' 'pa- geant-like,' 'potently,' ' persaunt-like.' It is perhaps worth while suggesting that the phrase (tant) pour tant (quasi 'tit for tat') perhaps underlies the word; it may well have been used in some game: Mr. Marshall quotes pur Tant from a poetical description of an old game, but no explanation has as yet been advanced. V. ii. 332. ' To show his teeth as white as whales bone'; Cam- bridge Edition, ' whale's bone ' ; this should certainly be printed whales bone, the regular name for walrus tusk in old English. V. ii. 338. ' Madman,' possibly an error for ' man,' ' mad ' being due to ' madam ' in the next line. V. ii. 565, 566. According to Plu- tarch, Alexander's head had a twist towards the left ; he states also that Alexander's skin had ' a marvellous good savour.' V. ii. 578. ' Your lion, that holds his poll-axe sitting on a close stool; ' the arms of Alexander. (See illus- tration and cp. Frontispiece to this V. ii. 591. ' Canis'; ' canus' in the old editions, required for the sake of the rhyme. V. ii. 739. 'a nimble'; Theobald's correction of 'humble.' (Quartos and Folios.) V. ii. 742, 743. The meaning of these somewhat obscure lines seems to be that 'the latest minute of the hour (cp. line 797) 136 From the Roman des nenf prcux ( Abbey ville, 1467;. LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Notes often fashions or moulds all causes or questions to the purposes of his speed, that is, to his own intents ' ; " the extreme parts are the end parts, ' extremities ' — as, of our body, fingers ; of chains, the final links ; of given portions of time, the last of those units into which we choose to divide them." Observe ' forms ' for 'form' by attraction of ' time.' In the next lines the metaphor is derived from archery. V. ii. 754. ' Double ' ; so Quartos and "Folios ; many modern edi- tors adopt 'dull' from the Collier MS. V. ii. 765. ' Strange ' ; the Quartos and Folios read ' straying/ possibly merely a variant spelling of ' strange.' V. ii. 878. 'Jack hath not Jill,' cp. Midsummer-Night' s Dream, III. ii. 461 :— "Jack shall have Jill: Nought shall go ill: The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well." Trf \fy ■) ► m J^ Plan of an Elizabethan ' Curious Knotted Garden ' (I. i. 249). m LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Explanatory Notes. The Explanatory Notes in this edition have been specially selected and adapted, with emendations after the latest and best authorities, from the most eminent Shakespearian scholars and commentators, including Johnson, Malone, Steevens, Singer, Dyce, Hudson, White, Furness, Dowden, and others. This method, here introduced for the first time, provides the best annotation of Shakespeare ever embraced in a single edition. ACT FIRST. Scene L 32. all these : — Referring probably to his companions in the in- tended life of study and fasting. He may be supposed to point to them. 92. Too much to know, etc. : — ^Johnson explains the passage thus : " The consequence, says Biron, of too much knowledge, is not any real solution of doubts, but mere reputation ; that is, too much knowledge gives only fame, a name which every godfather can give likewise." 161. / am the last that will last keep his oath: — Rolfe says that Mr. P. A. Daniel conjectures "one" for the first last, on the ground that Biron is made to say the contrary of what he means ; but Rolfe adds that Shakespeare sometimes twists the sense of a word a little for the sake of a repetition like this. 177. / will use him for my minstrelsy : — That is, as Douce ex- plains, " I will make a minstrel of him, whose occupation was to relate fabulous stories." 273, 274. the weaker vessel: — See i Peter, iii. 7; also As You Like It, II. iv. 6; Romeo and Juliet, I. i. 16; and 2 Henry IV., II. iv. 63. 290. damsel: — The Folio has damosell here and in the next two lines, the first Quarto damsel. See IV. ii. 130, of this play, where Holof ernes makes it damosella. 307. I 'II lay my head, etc. : — I will wager or stake. So in Henry v., IV. i. 234, 235 : " Lay twenty French crowns to one," etc. 138 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Notes Scene IL 5. dear imp : — Imp literally means a graff, scion, or shoot of a tree; hence formerly used in a good sense for offspring or child. So in the prologue to the Faerie Que cue: — "And thou [Cupid], most dreaded impe of highest Jove, Faire Venus sonne. Of course everybody knows the word is now used only for a wicked or mischievous being — a child of the devil. Z2» 34- crosses love not him: — So in As You Like It, II. iv. 12, 13, the clown says to Celia, " I should bear no cross, if I did bear you." Many coins were anciently marked with a cross on one side. 52. the dancing horse: — Of this animal Sir Kenelm Digby says : " He would restore a glove to the due owner, after the mas- ter had whispered the man's name in his ear; would tell the just number of pence in any piece of silver coin newly showed him by his master." Bankes showed his horse upon the continent, and in France had a narrow escape from the Capuchins, who suspected him of being in league with the devil. There was a report that he fell a victim to a similar suspicion at Rome. Ben Jonson, in his Epigrams, speaks of "Old Banks the juggler, our Pythagoras, Grave tutor to the learned horse ; both which Being, beyond sea, burned for one witch Their spirits transmigrated to a cat." 105. native she doth owe : — Of which she is naturally possessed. 115. digression: — Shakespeare elsewhere uses this word in the sense of diverging or straying from the right. So in the Rape of Lucrece, 202, 203 : — " Then my digression is so vile, so base. That it will live engraven in my face." And in Richard II., V. iii., when York reveals the treacherous conspiracy of his son, Bolingbroke says : — " And thy abundant goodness shall excuse This deadly blot in thy digressing son." 177, 178. TJie first and second cause, etc.: — This is explained in 139 Notes LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Touchstone's learned discourse on the causes of quarrel, in As You Like It, V. iv. ACT SECOND. Scene L 149. gelded : — This was a common metaphorical expression, then much used. In The Returne from Parnassus, III. i., we find: " He hath a proper gelded parsonage." And Bishop Hall, in the second Satire of Book iv. : " Plod it at a patron's tail, to get some gelded chapel's cheaper sale." 223. though several they he: — So in Bacon's Apothegms: " There was a lord that was leane of visage, but immediately after his marriage he grew fat. One said to him, ' Your lordship doth contrary to other married men ; for they first wax lean, and you wax fat.' Sir Walter Raleigh stood by, and said, 'Why there is no beast, that if you take him from the common, and put him into the several, but he will wax fat.' " ACT THIRD. Scene L 3. ConcoUnel: — The songs formerly used on the stage were often popular ditties, and therefore were omitted in the writing of a play. Such is apparently the case here; ConcoUnel being the first word of Moth's " sweet air." The song is probably lost ; at least, it has not been identified. 9. brawl : — This dance is thus described by Marston : " The brawl ! why, 'tis but two singles to the left, two on the right, three doubles forwards, a traverse of six rounds : do this twice, three singles side galliard trick of twenty coranto pace : a figure of eight, three singles broken down, come up, meet two doubles, fall back, and then honour." Ben Jonson gives it a most poetical dash in The Vision of Delight: — " In curious knots and mazes, so The Spring at first was taught to go ; And Zephyr, when he came to woo His Flora, had their motions too : 140 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Notes And thence did Venus learn to lead Th' Idalian brawls, and so to tread As if the wind, not she, did walk; Nor prest a flower, nor bow'd a stalk." And Gray thus alludes to Elizabeth's " dancing Chancellor," while describing the ancient seat of the Hattons : — " Full oft, within the spacious walls. When he had fifty winters o'er him. My grave Lord-keeper led the brazvls ; The seals and maces danc'd before him. His bushy beard, and shoe-strings green. His high-crown'd hat, and satin doublet, Mov'd the stout heart of England's Queen, Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it." 189. It was once a mark of gallantry to wear a lady's colours. A tumbler's hoop was usually dressed out with coloured ribands. 191. a German clock : — Clocks, which were usually imported from Germany at this time, were intricate and clumsy pieces of mechanism, soon deranged, and frequently " out of frame." Ben Jonson, in The Silent Woman, IV. i., thus describes a fashionable lady: " She takes herself asunder still when she goes to bed, into some twenty boxes ; and about next day noon is put together again, like a great German clock." ACT FOURTH. Scene I. I et seq. Was that the king, etc. : — " This," says Clarke, " is just one of those touches that Shakespeare throws in, to mark the way in which a woman unconsciously betrays her growing preference for a man who loves her. The princess recognizes the horseman, though he is at such a distance that her attendant lord is unable to distinguish whether it be the king or not ; and then she imme- diately covers her self-betrayal by the pretendedly indifferent words, Whoe'er a' was, etc. Shakespeare in no one of his won- drous and numerous instances of insight into the human heart more marvellously manifests his magic power of perception than in his discernment of the workings of female nature ; its delicacies, its subtleties, its reticences, its revelations, its innocent reserves, 141 Notes LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST and its artless confessions. He, of all masculine writers, was most truly feminine in his knowledge of what passes within a woman's heart, and the multiform ways in which it expresses it- self through a woman's acts, words, manner — nay even her very silence. He knew the eloquence of a look, the significance of a gesture, the interpretation of a tacit admission ; and, moreover, he knew how to convey them in his might of expression by ingenious inference." 10. " Royal and noble ladies, in the days of Elizabeth," says Knight, " delighted in the somewhat unrefined sport of shooting deer with a crossbow. In the ' alleys green ' of Windsor or of Greenwich parks, the queen would take her stand, on an elevated platform, and, as the pricket or the buck was driven past her, would aim the death-shaft, amid the acclamations of her admiring courtiers. The ladies, it appears, were skilful enough at this sylvan butchering. Sir Franpis Leake writes to the Earl of Shrewsbury: ' Your lordship has sent me a very great and fat stag, the wel- comer being stricken by your right honourable lady's hand.' The practice was as old as the romances of the Middle Ages. But, in those days, the ladies were sometimes not so expert as the Coun- tess of Shrewsbury ; for, in the history of Prince Arthur, a fair huntress wounds Sir Launcelot of the Lake, instead of the stag at which she aims." Scene H. 10. a buck of the £rst head: — In The Return from Parnassus, 1606, is the following account of the appellations of deer at their different ages : " Now, sir, a buck is, the first year, a fawn ; the second year, a pricket ; the third year, a sorrel ; the fourth year, a soare ; the fifth, a buck of the first head ; the sixth year, a com- plete buck. Likewise, your hart is, the first year, a calfe ; the second year, a brocket ; the third year, a spade ; the fourth year, a stag; the sixth year, a hart. A roe-buck is, the first year, a kid; the second year, a gird ; the third year, a hemuse ; and these are your special beasts for chase." 94-96. Fauste, precor gelida, etc. : — " In . . . his school career," says Baynes, " Shakespeare would begin the reading of Ovid, parts of the De Tristibus and the Metamorphoses, and with Ovid he would take up the selected Epistles of Cicero, and the Eclogues of Baptista Mantuanus. The evidence as to the last point is supplied by the well-known quotation from the Eclogues 142 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Notes in Love's Labour's Lost. But how imperfectly the subject of Shakespeare's scholarship has hitherto been worked out is, I think, shown by the fact that no critic or commentator seems to have ascertained with any certainty whether the Eclogues were in com- mon use as a school-book or not. Malone, indeed, says that from a passage in Nash's Apology, ' the Eclogues of Mantuanus appear to have been a school-book in our author's time.' And Warbur- ton gives at second hand a quotation from Farnaby's introduction to Martial, which certainly illustrates the absurdly high estimation in which the Mantuan was held. So popular was Mantuanus in the sixteenth century that, according to Farnaby, the pedants had no hesitation in preferring the ' Fauste, precor, gelida ' to the * Arma virumque cano ' ; in other words, the Eclogues of Mantuanus to the ^neid of Virgil. Several editions of the Eclogues in the original, and more than one translation, had been published in England before Shakespeare's school days, and it would seem, from numerous and laudatory references in contemporary litera- ture, that the author was, for a time, at least, as much in vogue here as on the continent." loi. Ut, re, etc. : — He hums the notes of the gamut as Edmund does in King Lear, I. ii. 148. 130. the tired horse : — That is, the horse adorned with ribands ; Bankes's horse is here probably alluded to. 132. Ay, sir, etc. : — Shakespeare forgot that Jaquenetta knew nothing of Biron, and had said just before that the letter had been " sent to her from Don Armado and given to her by Costard." Scene IIL 80. More sacks to the mill! — A well-known game among boys. 86. Her amber hairs . . . quoted : — Quoted signifies marked or noted. The construction of this passage will therefore be : " Her amber hairs have marked or shown that real amber is foul in comparison with themselves." 100-119. This poem is in The Passionate Pilgrim, xvii., in Eng- land's Helicon, 1614, and in Jaggard's Collection, 1599, omitting the couplet — " Do not call it sin in me, That I am forsworn for thee." 258. usurping hair: — This alludes to the fashion, prevalent 143 Notes LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST among ladies in Shakespeare's time, of wearing false hair, or perizvigs as they were then called, before that covering for the head had been adopted by men. 340. The Hesperides is here used for the garden of the Hes- perides. Some of the commentators have made a very needless ado about the Poet's mistake, as they call it, in thus putting the name of the owners for the name o,f the thing owned. But the same thing was done by several writers of that time ; and indeed similar forms of elliptical expression often occur in all sorts of writing and conversation. Gabriel Harvey, a man of unquestion- able learning, uses Hesperides in the same way. So also in Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay : — " Shew the tree, leav'd with refined gold. Whereon the fearful dragon held his seat, That watch'd the garden call'd Hesperides." 343, 344. And when Love speaks, etc. : — Heath thus explains this passage: "Whenever Love speaks, all the gods join their voices with his in harmonious concert." The sleep-persuading powers of music have been much celebrated by poets of all times, and are probably well known to all who have been children. Shirley in his Love Tricks carries the thing about far enough : — " The tongue that 's able to rock heaven asleep, And make the music of the spheres stand still, To listen to the happier airs it makes. And mend their tunes by it." 379. fair Love: — Fair Love is Venus. So in Antony and Cleo- patra, I. i. 44: " Now, for the love of Love and her soft hours." 382. Sozu'd cockle, etc.: — That is, where cockle is sowed, no corn is reaped. ACT FIFTH. Scene L [Enter Holofernes, etc.] " It will be remembered," observes Baynes, "that these learned men were walking in the park after having dined with the father of one of the school pupils, where it had been previously arranged that, if the curate would gratify the table with a grace, the pedant would undertake to prove that 144 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Notes Biron's love verses, which they had read together, were * very unlearned, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention.' " After quoting lines 1-34, Baynes proceeds : " These scraps of Latin dialogue exemplify the technical Latin intercourse [in Shakespeare's time] between master and pupils in the school work, as well as the formal colloquies the latter were required to prepare as exercises in the second stage of their course. In one of the manuals of the latter, entitled Familiares Colloquendi Formulcr in Usum Scholarum Concinnatce, I find under the first section, headed ' Scholasticae Belonging to the School,' the fol- lowing: 'Who comes to meet us? Quis obviam venitf He speaks improperly. Hie incongrue loquitur; he speaks false Latin, Diminuit Prisciani caput; 'Tis barbarous Latin, Old Barharicmf In the scene just quoted from it will be remembered Holof ernes, in reply to Costard's 'Ad dunghill at the fingers' ends, as they say,' says, 'O I smell false Latin, dunghill for unqucm.' " 103. excrement: — The heard is called valour's excrement in The Merchant of Venice, and in all but one of the six passages in which the Poet uses the word excrement he applies it to the hair or beard. 129, 130. shall pass Pompey : — That is, shall walk in the pro- cession for or as Pompey. Scene IL 19. mouse : — This was formerly a term of endearment. So in Hamlet, III. iv. 183: "Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his fnouse/' 43-45- 'Ware pencils, etc.: — She advises Katharine to beware of drazcing likenesses, lest she should retaliate, and then pays her back at once by likening her to a red dominical letter, and twitting her with the smallpox marks on her face, which Rosaline calls O's. 121. Muscovites or Russians: — Hall, describing a banquet made for the foreign ambassadors at Westminster, in the first year of Henry VIII., says, there " came the Lorde Henry Earle of Wilt- shire and the Lorde Fitzwater, in two long gownes of yellow satin traversed with white satin, and in every bend of white was a bend of crimosen sattin after the fashion of Russia or Ruslande, with furred hattes of grey on their hedes, either of them havyng an hatchet in their handes, and bootes with pykes turned up." Which may serve to show that a masque of Muscovites was a I4S Notes LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST court recreation, and at the same time convey an idea of the dress used on the present occasion. 187. measure : — This dance was performed at public entertain- ments in the Inns of Court ; and it was not unusual, nor thought inconsistent, for the first characters in the law to bear a part in treading a measure. Sir Christopher Hatton was famous for it. 297. angels vailing clouds: — That is, letting fall those clouds which hid them or obscured their brightness. 548. lihbard's head on knee : — Alluding to old dresses and armour, which often had knee-caps wrought in the form of a leopard's head. y24-y2y. Armado probably means to say in his affected style that he had discovered he was wronged, and meant to right him- self like a soldier. " One may see day at a little hole," is an old proverb. 748. ivhich fain it zvould convince: — That is, which it fain would succeed in obtaining. 821-825. The justice of Coleridge's remarks upon these lines is obvious enough : " There can be no doubt indeed about the pro- priety of expunging this speech of Rosaline's ; it soils the very page that retains it. But I do not agree with Warburton and others in striking out the preceding line also. It is quite in Biron's character, and, Rosaline not answering it immediately, Dumain takes up the question for him, and, after he and Longa- ville are answered, Biron, with evident propriety, says, * Studies my lady?'" etc. Perhaps the two speeches may be taken as an apt illustration of the difference between the original and the aug- mented copies. 899. Gerarde in his Herbal, 1597, says, that the Hos cuculi carda- mine, etc., are called " in English cuckoo flowers, in Norfolk Canterbury bells, and at Namptwich, in Cheshire, Ladie-smocks." Herbe a coqu was one of the old French names for the cowslip, which it seems probable is the flower here meant. 916. blozvs his 7iail : — A similar expression occurs in one of South's sermons : " So that the king, for anything that he has to do in these matters, may sit and blow his nails; for use them otherwise he cannot." 928. crabs: — The crab-apple, which used to be roasted and put hissing-hot into a bowl of ale, previously enriched with toast and spice and sugar. How much this was relished in old times may be guessed by those who appreciate the virtues of apple-toddy. 146 LOVE'S LABOUR *S LOST Questions on Loves Labour's Lost. 1. State the probable date of the play. 2. For what reasons was it popular in Shakespeare's day; and why is it no longer performed on the stage? ACT FIRST. 3. Comment on the King's opening speech on the triumph of Fame. 4. How are the earlier speeches of the King and of Biron in the nature of prologue? 5. Is any action supposed to precede that of the play? 6. State the conditions of life to which the King and his fol- lowers agree to devote themselves. Is there any model in foreign literature for this conceit? 7. What modern poet has paralleled this, with the conditions reversed? 8. What does Biron say (Sc. i.) about study? 9. With what humorous reservation does Biron subscribe to the regulations? 10. How is Armado described in the first Scene? 11. How is the tedium of this isolated community to be re- lieved ? 12. In what way is the letter of Armado prepared for? What follies of the age does it satirize? 13. What is the humorous purpose, as concerns the plot, of the episode of Costard and Jaquenetta? In the humorous purposes of the dramatist what positions do Moth and Jaquenetta occupy (Sc. ii.) in relation to Armado? ACT SECOND. 14. What purpose has the Princess in coming to Navarre? 15. Indicate the comic relation of the visit to the newly taken vows of the King. 147 Questions LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST i6. How is Biron characterized by Rosaline? 17. Characterize the encounter between Biron and Rosaline. 18. Mention some of the metrical forms employed by Shake- speare in the first and second Acts. ACT THIRD. 19. How does Moth describe the affectations of the time? 20. How does Costard gain his release? 21. Comment on lines 68-70. 22. Explain the meaning and use here (line jz) of the word I'envoy. 23. On what errand does Biron dispatch Costard? 24. Compare Biron's soliloquy on love with Benedick's reflec- tions on the same subject. 25. Which of the two men present the more humorous object in their self-consciousness as women-killers? 26. Show how the first three acts are defective in the way that the dramatic problem is stated and developed. 27. Account for the slightness of the first three in comparison with the fourth and fifth Acts. ACT FOURTH. 28. In what occupation does the opening of this Act discover che Princess and her train? 29. State the mistake in the delivery of the letters. Is it provocative of much mirth? 30. What is satirized in the person of Holofernes? 31. To what does Holofernes threaten to subject the verses of Biron? Who does he invite for his audience? 32. Does he follow learning for its own sake or for the sake of the effect he can make by displaying it? 2,2,- What is the difference between scholar and pedant? 34. Granting the satirical purpose of this Scene, does it miss point by being too much of the quality of the thing satirized? 35. Describe the scene which reveals the King's company as forsworn. 36. Who writes the best verses? 37. How does Biron enjoy a momentary triumph, and how comes about his fall? 148 LOVE'S LABOUR 'S LOST Questions 38. What is his opinion of the women's susceptibility to love- verses? Do you think the woman addressed or the magazines the best appreciators of love- verse? 39. Give the argument of Biron's rhapsody on women. ACT FIFTH. 40. How does Nathaniel comment on the arguments of Holo- f ernes? 41. What are the comments of Moth and Costard on Holo- fernes and Nathaniel? 42. Who are to play the Nine Worthies? How was Moth to play Hercules? 43. Under what disguise does the King's party visit the Prin- cess ? How are they met, and what exchanges among the women are made before their return? 44. Describe the Masque. Is this as mirth provoking as the Masque in A Midsummer-Night's Dream? 45. What is the emotional effect of the message announcing the French King's death? 46. What penalties are laid upon the King's party that bear out the play's title, Love's Labour's Lost? What is the humorous effect of Biron's sentence? 47. What new element is introduced in the songs with which the play closes? 48. The earliest edition of the play denotes this as a " pleasant conceited comedy." Show how this designation is borne out. 49. Is there anything, either in the nature of the plot or the conduct of the characters, to mar the uniform pleasant effect? 50. Mention certain characters that are manifestly studies for characters that appear in plays of subsequent dates. 51. What play of Moliere's does this resemble in purpose? 52. What do you imagine to have been Shakespeare's feeling about Euphuism and other learned affectations of his age? 53. In what other play does a character embody the affectation known as Euphuism? 54. Read this play in the light of the words on plays and acting found in Hamlet and consider how Shakespeare has here em- bodied those elements of his dramatic creed. 55. Does this play contain much that is quotable? Mention some especially witty or felicitous turns of expression. 149 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES L 009 978 274 iiliiiilM^^^